KEY POINTS:
That Mils Muliaina, with more than 60 caps, can still feel intimidated playing in South Africa says everything about the size of the challenge the All Blacks face this week.
Winning in the Republic has been a nut the All Blacks have rarely cracked under Graham Henry.
They have managed two wins in five tests for a 40 per cent return that sits entirely at odds with their overall win ratio of 85 per cent during the same period.
The poor return in South Africa can't be simply explained by the All Blacks being taken away from their home environment. There have been no difficulties winning in other venues.
Excluding the World Cup, the All Blacks are unbeaten in Europe under Henry. They have played 11 end-of-year tests in Europe since 2004 and won the lot.
There are features specific to South Africa that make it, according to Muliaina, the toughest road trip in the world game.
"It is a massive build-up, the week is so intense and the difference between that and Super 14 is that the whole country gets right behind them and that can be a little bit intimidating," he says of what the All Blacks will experience in the next six days.
"It is really hard to win in their backyard but we are going there to play well and hopefully come away with the win.
"You don't get out of the hotel much and when you do, you tend to go out as a team. That is one of the obstacles you have to face.
"We are fortunate enough to be in Cape Town and that is a beautiful place and one that you can just go up the road.
"You get a lot of bad stories from over there, which is probably why we are all so anal about staying in our rooms. You don't get out much so I guess that gives you time to think about your game and do your homework."
The other obstacle the All Blacks have to face is a South African side that is loaded with experience and now equipped with deep reserves of self-belief following their World Cup triumph last year and their win at Carisbrook last month, their first on New Zealand soil in 10 years.
These are the landmark victories that live with a team, make them see they can respond to any challenge if they get their preparation right and then execute on the night.
It was obvious self-belief saw the Boks through to victory in Dunedin. It looked like they had missed their window. Ali Williams limped off midway through the first half and the Boks lifted their work-rate and upped the intensity.
But they didn't push far enough on the scoreboard and, after being afforded time to regroup at the break, the All Blacks found their composure, settled things down and sailed into the jaws of victory when Dan Carter put them 28-23 ahead with seven minutes remaining.
A lesser side would have folded at that point, realising it was futile to keep fighting an All Black side on a ground where they had lost only three times in 100 years.
Not the Boks. Ricky Januarie saw what was barely half a chance because he still had his eye open for opportunity the way Springbok sides of old wouldn't have.
The depth of South Africa's self-belief is impressive. But the resilience of this All Black side shouldn't be underestimated.
They had to dig deep to overcome the Australians in Auckland.
They had to dig deep because they were under intolerable pressure.
Losing was not an option - it would have been the third defeat on the bounce and All Black sides of the past have made a point of not losing three in a row too regularly.
"It was a mass ive week," says Muliaina of the build-up to the Auckland test won 39-10.
"There was definitely a lot of pressure and a lot of heat on the guys to perform.
"You try to get away from it but you hear a lot of it from outside sources and, to be honest, we just didn't play that well in Sydney.
"What was known in the group was that, although we didn't play well, there were still aspects of our game that we thought we could work on.
"To the coaches' credit, they stayed pretty relaxed. We asked for a day off in the build-up - when you have lost 34-19, you have to trust it is the right thing to get away from the game.
"They gave us that time away and they thought it was the right thing to do to keep the boys on edge."
Muliaina says it is imperative the team rediscovers that fire in Cape Town.
The pressure has come off a little following such an impressive performance but Muliaina and the other senior players know that it will be back to full blast if the performance and result are not delivered in South Africa.
It's all very different to the All Black Tri Nations campaigns Muliaina has experienced since coming into the team in 2003.
In the five seasons he has been involved, the All Blacks have won the Tri Nations four times.
Even in 2004, the year they didn't win, they were still a chance in their final game, having won their two home tests before losing to Australia in Sydney.
Perhaps strangely, the pressure has been welcomed by the fullback who is now one of the five on-field leaders in the squad.
"It is a tight competition. We have lost a couple. Perhaps in the past, we have won early on and I think one year we had already won it before we went to South Africa.
"It is a new challenge. There are new guys in our team and we have to help them through, to make them realise this is not Super 14.
"This is test match footy and it is pressure-cooker stuff and you have to try to really soak it up.
"I'm enjoying that."
