KEY POINTS:
The All Blacks have played only four tests at the famous Newlands ground in Cape Town since South Africa was readmitted to world sport 16 years ago.
Another international beckons next weekend for the tourists in what could be the pivotal match of the Tri-Nations series, where victory for the All Blacks would give them a serious shot at retaining their title.
Three All Blacks tests in the modern era have been against the Boks at Newlands, with the men in black leading 2-1 after wins in the series in 1996, then 2001 when Tony Brown kicked four penalties in a sodden match before the Springboks won their last meeting 22-16 in 2005.
Next weekend will be a massive test but nothing may quite match the All Blacks' first test at the famous ground after international sporting isolation ended for South Africa in 1992.
That year the All Blacks played their solitary test against the Springboks at Ellis Park and then of course there was their epic meeting at the same venue, amid all the controversy of allegations of food poisoning at the final of the1995 World Cup. But it was the week before that tumultuous final, when the All Blacks finally returned to the legendary Newlands ground for the first time since the 1976 series to play England.
The wait was worth it for those All Black fans who made the trek through the curved lanes and past the stallholders to watch the test being played on the ground which has the famous Table Mountain as a backdrop.
It was the World Cup semifinal against England who had talked themselves up a fair bit while the All Blacks had been shaken a little by their errors and inability to shake off Scotland in the quarters.
In three Cup matches, Jonah Lomu had scored three tries and there was plenty of discussion in the press about his impact though the souvenir programme gave little away.
His bio, compiled before the tournament and unaltered during the event, blandly stated that he was a bank officer whose hobbies were music, touch football and volleyball and that he was known to his friends as Joe.
English wing Tony Underwood was marking Lomu and had unwisely, made some newspaper comments about making life difficult for the All Black. Stung by those remarks, Lomu was annoyed further when Underwood winked at him during the haka.
Two minutes into the test, Underwood was one of a number of English victims trampled, swatted and bludgeoned by Lomu as he rampaged to the first of his four tries to the accompanying "oh, oh, oh, oh" broadcasting bewilderment of Keith Quinn.
It was an afternoon of staggering power, pace and supremacy from Lomu whose impact was described as a "brown, brooding Gulliver in a land of Lilliput".
England were wiped 45-29 on that memorable afternoon more than 13 years ago and left to lament the notion that the All Black selectors thought seriously about leaving Lomu out of the World Cup squad.
A bit of that same magic next weekend will help if the All Blacks are to overturn their last result in Cape Town and the difficulties they have had every year, except the last, in having a clean sheet in the Republic.
