All Black coach Dave Rennie knows the intensity will go up significantly when his team take the field to face the Springboks in the first of their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry test matches at Ellis Park on Saturday.
While the team completed a 50-19 demolition of the Bulls in their third tour match, which turned out to be a mismatch given the Bulls were three weeks into their pre-season and not a match for the fine-tuned All Blacks, Rennie knows what is coming is going to be a whole different level as well.
The Boks have been quietly training in anticipation for the tests, watching the All Blacks complete their first two weeks of their tour and chomping at the bit to get onto the field against their greatest rivals.
And on Saturday the clash is likely to be brutal, physical and at another level altogether, something that isn’t lost on Rennie at all.
So while expressing his happiness at the victory over the Bulls at altitude, Rennie did remind anyone that was listening that the intensity will be at another level this coming weekend.
“Oh look, I thought we had a lot of opportunities tonight to really play on top of the ball and force defenders to make decisions, and it was almost like we were training for the Springboks, who are coming a lot harder defensively,” Rennie said.
“So it's good for us — we've now got a game at altitude, guys have got an appreciation for that. I thought we worked really hard in those circumstances and we'll be better for it.
"We know the intensity level, the quality that we're gonna come up against next week is three, four, five-fold. But yeah, we've played reasonably well on tour, and we know we need to up the ante.”
While acknowledging the team that played there was nowhere near to the finished article, Rennie said that a few players had put up their hands for selection.
The All Black coach will select a team led by Ardie Savea, who hasn’t taken part in the tour yet and arrived on Thursday in South Africa, while there are injury concerns over Damian McKenzie, Cam Roigard, and Will Jordan, all key players in their arsenal.
This against a Bok team that certainly won’t be unfit or not ready for the challenge, and who don’t - other than captain Siya Kolisi - have many injury concerns at the moment.
“That certainly wasn't our test side tonight, so there'll be a number of changes, but there were some really good performances that will put pressure on us from a selection point of view, and it's nice to have seven days to get over that. We've got a plan around selection, and there were a handful of positions that were gonna be decided based on tonight's performance,” Rennie added.
The All Blacks will only name their side on Thursday but you can bet they will be upping the war of words this week as they head into one of the most anticipated clashes of the year.