KEY POINTS:
Trivial pursuit time. Name the last All Black side who lost at home to the Springboks. Clue: Wellington in 1998.
To save you running to the almanac, here is that starting XV: Christian Cullen, Jeff Wilson, Mark Mayerhofler, Walter Little, Jonah Lomu, Carlos Spencer, Justin Marshall, Taine Randell, Josh Kronfeld, Michael Jones, Robin Brooke, Ian Jones, Olo Brown, Anton Oliver, Craig Dowd.
Not a bad side, on paper at least, but one which was to suffer the indignity that season of five straight test losses after winning 22, drawing one and losing one of their previous 24 tests.
The 13-3 defeat for the All Blacks that day at Athletic Park was the widest margin in the five-blot run against the Springboks and Wallabies that season. The run of defeats should have concluded after the third but referee Peter Marshall missed a knock on in Durban and awarded Springbok hooker James Dalton a late try for the 24-23 victory.
Those were tough times when the All Blacks and their management tried everything to appease the doom merchants. After the third defeat against the Wallabies in Christchurch, coach John Hart and his lieutenants arrived for the post-match press conference while the team filed in behind them in a show of solidarity.
Whether their stern and brooding appearance was meant to deter some media questioning, who knows? It certainly offered a talking point, as it did in 2005 at a special conference at the NZRU headquarters.
In much the same way, Tana Umaga was flanked by the bulk of his team when he finally attended a press conference in 2005 to answer inquiries about his tackle on rival Lions skipper Brian O'Driscoll.
I'm not suggesting the All Black panel will be accompanied by a similar show of solidarity after tonight's test in Wellington but the current side does not have the same calibre as the losing 1998 All Black team.
And their opponents are the World Cup holders who have maintained a fairly settled squad since they annexed the trophy last year in Paris.
However that tournament was not notable for much sparkling play, nor a great deal of enterprise. In many ways it was a tournament for the Springboks to lose once the All Blacks fell over against France.
The Springboks have arrived as unbeaten world champions, they are in the middle of a streak while the All Blacks have not felt the chill of defeat at home for 29 tests since 2003.
It is a case of whether the Boks are feeling the squeeze of their new prestige or can use that to motivate them to a first triumph in a decade. Will they parade like world champions or crumble because of that pressure, a few flaky outside backs and their inability to cope with conditions?
The All Blacks have made a good habit of giving World Cup holders a shakeup in their first meeting since claiming the global title. In 1992 they lost by a solitary point to the Wallabies at Sydney but in 1996 beat the Springboks 15-11 in Christchurch, in 2000 they outlasted the Wallabies 39-35 and in 2004 scalped England 36-3 in Dunedin.
