All Blacks: The game within the game

Bakkies Botha may have been caught red-handed, but the All Blacks are not lily-white. Photo / Getty Images

Supposedly, with cameras everywhere, there is no room for cheap shots and latent thuggery in test rugby.

Players have a different view. They say plenty goes on - off the ball, undetected and unreported.

Pretty much all test teams try to impose themselves but no side does so more aggressively than the Springboks.

In the immediate aftermath of last Saturday's test, several players gave the impression the Bakkies Botha head butt was merely the tip of the iceberg. The intimation was obvious that when the All Blacks play the Springboks, they expect the cheap shots; they expect elbows crashed into the backs of their heads; to be stood on while they are on the ground; and to be played when the ball is nowhere near in sight.

They expect it -not as overtly as the Botha head-butt at Eden Park - but they know there will be a game within the game.

"Every now and when you chase a kick you get bumped off the ball," says fullback Mils Muliaina of the Springboks. "I try not to get into too many rucks but there have been times when I have been lying face down and wondered if I have been punched in the head.

"We talk about that kind of thing quite a lot and emphasise the need not to retaliate."

Keven Mealamu, as combative and tough as anyone in the world game, puts it a little differently: "I think there is a little bit of line blurring when you have two teams desperate to win, desperate to be physical and impose themselves."

Intimidation remains a big part of the South Africa psyche. Their entire game plan is dependent on their forwards winning the collisions; of crossing the advantage line and asserting physical dominance.

To achieve that goal, they seem prepared to play on the fringes and at times outside the law. Much like the French, they appear to be more lenient towards transgressors.

There was little condemnation internally of Schalk Burger last year when he was guilty of eye-gouging against the Lions. Even Botha's actions were maybe not justified, but certainly defended, by Springboks coach Peter de Villiers.

The prevailing attitude is what needs to be done has to be done; the end justifies the means.

The All Blacks come across a little differently; giving every impression they will be tough on any player who indulges in foul play. It's only an impression because there have been so few incidents in the last 10 years involving All Blacks.

Brad Thorn was stood down for a game in 2008 when he tackled John Smit then dumped him on his head when the Springbok captain didn't have the ball. There was the Tana Umaga/Mealamu/Brian O'Driscoll incident that never was decided upon in a judicial sense. That's it.

Yet the All Blacks should not be considered squeaky clean. The reason they allude to Springbok shenanigans without any sense of indignation is their own house is not totally in order.

The All Blacks have their own ways of imposing themselves. How many All Black forwards walk round their opponent if the way to the lineout is blocked? There were muted grumblings from the Welsh in Hamilton that Sam Whitelock - yellow carded for pulling Jonathan Thomas's jersey at a ruck - was not the only All Black guilty of such a crime.

Jimmy Cowan, too, clearly held back Botha at Eden Park. The All Blacks are maybe not dirty, but they are prone to niggling opponents. That's why Thorn drops his head and smiles.

"I don't think I can talk about this," he says, acknowledging that only he without sin can cast the first stone. "You always want to play within the spirit of the game. But sometimes things happen... You have 22 players from each country going full bore at each other, so who knows what might happen."

Mealamu puts it this way: "We are not the sort of side that doesn't stand up for ourselves. If things are happening and you do nothing about it, then they will go on all game."

Analysis of Thorn will show his days in league are still with him. He tends to leave his forearm on the throat of the player he has tackled and push back to his feet from that position. It's not illegal, just inflammatory; designed to fire up the tackled player.

These grey areas are worked to the All Blacks' advantage. Thorn reckons the game is significantly cleaner now than when he first came across to union in 2001.

"Now if someone has made a tackle and they are half free, on the ground on the edge of a ruck, they probably won't get stood on these days. A lot of the game has been tidied up."