Johannesburg – The Springboks will attempt to be the first team to beat the All Blacks since they lifted the World Cup title last year when they square up in their Rugby Championship match at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
Bok captain Jean de Villiers said on the eve of the clash that they were expecting a tough battle in an effort to break the touring side's winning streak.
A 16th consecutive victory for the All Blacks would bring them a step closer to the world record of 18 successive wins held by Lithuania.
“The pressure is always on and every Test you play you want to win,” De Villiers said on Friday.
“New Zealand is chasing something quite big in that record and with that comes a bit of pressure.
“For us as a team we are still pretty much under pressure to perform and show that we are improving as a team.
“It was a good showing last week (against Australia) but we need to build on that and hopefully put up a good performance this week.”
The previous encounter between the two rivals was a true battle of attrition, in Dunedin last month, with the 21-11 scoreline not truly reflecting how close the match was.
Up until the 60th minute the sides were deadlocked at 8-8 when replacement scrumhalf Aaron Smith scored a try to tip the match in the All Blacks’ favour.
While the Boks held their own in the match, De Villiers admitted they were not good enough to take the spoils.
“We were beaten by a better team at the end of the day,” he said.
“They took their chances and they got the points on the board.
“There are aspects of that game that we can take some positives from but it is a totally different game on Saturday.
“It is a new 80 minutes and we have to start all over again.”
De Villiers said the match at FNB Stadium, near Soweto, would add to the rich history between the two teams .
“One thing about rugby, and being a bit of a traditionalist as well, the match-ups that you get in those Tests and the history of South Africa-New Zealand games, if you go to ‘81 and what happened then, ‘95 and the World Cup final, it is always quite special,” the skipper said.
“If you go back to the last time we played them at Soccer City it turned out not to be a great day for us.”
While there will be a lot of pressure on the Boks to perform after their emphatic 31-8 victory over Australia last weekend, much of that will be directed at 20-year-old flyhalf Johan Goosen.
Goosen – playing in his fourth Test and only his second start – proved against Australia that he could handle the pressure, and De Villiers believed he would be up for the biggest test of his short career.
“I don’t think a lot bothers that guy (Goosen),” De Villiers said.
“He sort of just gets on with his job. I think the bigger the event the bigger the response will be from him.
“So it seems as if his heel has settled down a bit and that definitely will give him more confidence.
“He is a great player with a great head on his shoulders.
“We are going to need him to be at his best, and we are going to need the whole team to be at their best.” – Sapa