Assistant coach Neil Barnes says the All Blacks have “poked a bear” and must expect a fiery response from the world champion Springboks in Cape Town on Saturday.
New Zealand beat the Boks 33-16 at Ellis Park last week, ending the Springboks’ 12-Test unbeaten run, but Barnes knows the Kiwis will face a stronger challenge in the second Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
Speaking to the New Zealand Herald’s Ryan Bridge, Barnes admitted Dave Rennie’s men were under severe pressure in Joburg before turning the match around.
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“But mate, I don’t know if you’ve ever poked a bear before. I sort of know what’s coming, and so we’ll be preparing for a beast that’s going to be even bigger than the last one,” he said.
“That’ll be a hell of a battle. So we know that we’ve got to be a s**tload better than what we were this week.
“We had to survive a hell of a lot of pressure, to be honest; we didn’t get it right in the first half. They were all over us, knocking us down.
“We couldn’t even get to the advantage line; probably the poorest stats we’ve had for the whole tour, to be honest. To survive all that pressure and then turn the game back on them was pretty impressive.”
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Barnes said the Boks’ errors helped New Zealand stay in the contest.
“We can’t survive that type of pressure every time. The Springboks made a truckload of mistakes in that game, which led us back into it.
“If they were clinical, we wouldn’t have had a chance. So we’ve got to improve our game tenfold if we want to win the next one. So we’re very clear on that.”
He added: “So can only commend the guys for the way they handled all that pressure and then turned it all around for us.”
Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Image
The post All Blacks preparing for a ‘bigger beast’ appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Assistant coach Neil Barnes says the All Blacks have “poked a bear” and must expect a fiery response from the world champion Springboks in Cape Town on Saturday.
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