Mike Greenaway: Springbok fans know their team can do better

Victor Matfield. Photo / Natalie Slade

In South Africa, there was a curiously muted response to the Springboks' heavy defeat at Eden Park. Usually, a 20-point hiding would mean the television getting battered by beer and biltong, but the relatively calm reaction was based on respect for an irresistible All Black performance and the fact that many felt the Boks were always going to be better in the second test, tomorrow in Wellington.

There was an uneasiness among Springbok supporters in the build-up last week based on the expected desperation of a home team that had been stewing for 12 months. The All Blacks were in the starting blocks long before the bleary-eyed Boks clambered off the plane on the Monday night after 23 hours of travelling. Five days is not enough to overcome jet lag and get fighting fit for the heavily armed ambush you know is coming. Why they did not travel eight or nine days before (and spend the first three sleeping) only their management can answer.

This week there can be no such excuses (not that the Boks themselves offered any, to their credit). They are fully acclimatised and in terms of what to expect from the All Blacks, they are once (savagely) bitten and many times shy.

And this time if the Boks are limp in the physical changes and muddled on defence, the knives that have been packed away will be dusted off and sharpened. That is just how it goes.

It is fair to say that this second test will indeed give us a better indication of where the teams are. Last week the All Blacks could not have dreamed they would get such quick ball for their backs to run on to and have so many aimless kicks fed to them for the counter-attack and, boy, did they make the most of it.

What annoys the Boks so much about last week is that the game panned out completely contrary to the way they normally play. The Boks' chief strategy is unashamedly one of strangulation. John Smit once described his team as a deadly hybrid of a python and a green mamba that constricts the life out of its prey and when its limbs are limp, delivers deadly strikes.

The problem, of course, is that such a strategy depends on dominating the physical exchanges - particularly the rucks and the tackle-ball - and on a pin-point kicking game that puts such pressure on the opposition defence that the turnovers are affected.

But at Eden Park, it was the Boks who were smashed off the ball at ruck and maul time, seemingly by hordes of black jerseys, while the South African tactical kicking was poor, mostly because of the absence of their best player, injured halfback Fourie du Preez.

Lineouts were another area of unexpected South African weakness. The All Blacks won all their ball and stole two Springbok throws, much to the fury of lineout maestro Victor Matfield. Smit took the rap for this one, admitting that his throws were off target, resulting in "looks from Victor that reminded me of my wife when I get home late from a night out with the boys".

Matfield, we are told, has been hard at work this week in front of his laptop devising strategies to regain his lineout crown.

However you look at it, the Boks will surely be better this week, while some will wonder if the All Blacks can hit such heady heights two weeks in a row. I reckon this is going to be an all-time classic. A very good Bok team that is much chastised after an uncharacteristically poor performance versus a very good All Black team determined to back up a masterful display.