KEY POINTS:
The Springboks will use a 50th test cap for lock Bakkies Botha as the impetus for them squaring the Tri-Nations ledger tomorrow at Carisbrook.
Botha and new skipper Victor Matfield will pair up for their 40th match together in a side which is desperate to honour its World Cup winning prestige and crack a decade of defeats in New Zealand.
Bok coach Peter de Villiers announced three changes to the team which lost the first skirmish 19-8 last weekend in Wellington before the group packed up late yesterday and flew to Dunedin.
Regular skipper John Smit is injured and travelling home with a groin injury while fullback Conrad Jantjes and right wing Odwa Ndungane have both been sacked.
Veteran Percy Montgomery will start his 98th test and provide the goalkicking from fullback while JP Pietersen, who has shown little form this season has been chosen on reputation on the wing.
Smit's absence will reduce somewhat the side's experience and leadership but du Plessis is a fine mobile hooker, though there will be questions about whether he can rectify the scrum ailments of last week.
Du Plessis' reputation is growing though, he had a fine Super 14 campaign and has more of an all-round game than his captain. He is a scrumming technician but lacks some bulk and that puts extra heat on his props, CJ van der Linde and Gurthro Steenkamp to consolidate the scrum more than they did last week.
The continued absence of rangy No 8 Ryan Kankowski will please the All Blacks while they may also have dodged a bullet with the talented Francois Steyn still in the reserves.
However the hosts believe Steyn will be introduced much earlier in this test if Butch James or the midfield does not fire.
"They certainly weren't way below what they are capable of physically," All Black assistant Wayne Smith said. "They threw a lot at us and I thought they played a lot more expansively against us than they had in the last four years.
"As we know the more expansively we play the more you are prone to error, it is just a numbers game. The Springboks are pretty tough. They always front, there is seldom a blowout. It is hard to say what their approach will be."
