Mauger sounds ominous warning for Boks

Aaron Mauger

SUN CITY, South Africa - Returning All Blacks rugby midfielder Aaron Mauger has sounded more alarm bells for the Springboks, saying they're thriving on the high veldt and were disappointed at not having notched 60 points last weekend.

Mauger reclaims the No 12 jersey at Rustenberg on Sunday (NZ time) after missing the past two Tri-Nations matches with a groin strain.

There was plenty of intent in Mauger's voice this week as he spoke of rejoining his Crusaders teammate Daniel Carter and the prospect of setting alight one of the most potent All Blacks backlines.

Fijian flyers Joe Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu will lurk on the wings, former schoolboy sprint champion Doug Howlett at fullback and another who's no slouch, Mils Muliaina, at centre.

"We've talked about being expansive and seeing if we can take our game to a new level, which is exciting," Mauger said.

Mauger watched Luke McAlister do a good job in his No 12 jersey and now gets his chance to help the All Blacks finish with a flourish in their ninth test in 12 weeks before a two-month break.

"Pretty similar to last week (a 45-26 win in Pretoria). We always talk about finishing the job better than we started it. We've probably gone up all year and the standard of opposition's gone up, so you have to keep rising.

"We bombed a couple of tries last week so it could quite easily have been 60 points. " The difficulty of adjusting to the high altitude in the northern part of the republic has been much-discussed, but Mauger believes it's almost a non-issue.

After 10 years of touring South Africa in the Super 12/14 competition, and having cursed playing in New Zealand at night in mid-winter, All Blacks teams now relish the opportunity.

"The boys love the sunshine and the hard grounds. We've got the quickest guys in world rugby out on the wings so it doesn't really bother us where we play.

"The boys adjust to the altitude pretty quick as well. We're pretty happy to be in Sun City, enjoying the sun and having a bit of fun."

It sounds easy. Kick off, get the ball wide, and watch the score mount up.

But even with the Springboks struggling with five straight defeats, and coach Jake White making five personnel changes to his side yesterday, toppling them here still requires the hard yards.

Last weekend's win in Pretoria, the All Blacks' 15th in a row, was a case of absorbing the early pressure, staying calm then stepping it up after the break with some slick counter-attacking tries.

Mauger said his Crusaders team followed the blueprint of winning in South Africa to the letter when they toppled the Bulls in Pretoria earlier this year.

"The Bulls are similar to the South Africans (Springboks), it's all about forward dominance and having a crack. We found if we took the opportunities away from them they got a bit bored with the game.

"We just worked harder than them, we chased hard, we got back and helped and counter attacked, so that was pretty much all that game was about.

"We stopped their momentum, set our line up quicker and knocked over their big boys as much as we could.

"If you take away a team's strengths, it's like a bully I suppose. We see them as bullies, we try to get up in their faces and bully them back."

Mauger wasn't surprised that White recalled Andre Pretorius to the No 10 jersey, labelling him the most creative South African back after he sparked up the Springboks when he replaced Butch James in Pretoria.

Other changes saw fullback Percy Montgomery axed, Jaque Fourie move from centre to fullback, Wynand Olivier take Fourie's No 13 jersey, veteran AJ Venter replace Jacques Cronje at No 8, Pedrie Wannenburg in for flanker Solly Tyibilika and prop BJ Botha replace CJ van der Linde who has a neck injury.

- NZPA