All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster has fired the first shots in the expected war of words with the Springboks - warning the South Africans against getting "too smart" ahead of the sides' mouthwatering World Cup opener.
Speaking to Sky Sport after the All Blacks' first full training session in a sweltering Kashiwa, about 60km outside Tokyo, Foster suggested the Boks were playing mind games with their tactic to deliberately give up the ball for large parts of their final warmup match against Japan at the weekend.
The Boks defeated the Brave Blossoms 41-7 despite only having 36 per cent possession - a tactic head coach Rassie Erasmus later admitted was employed to prepare for the All Blacks clash next Saturday.
While Foster called it a "smart move" he warned that the strategy could backfire when the sides meet in the International Stadium in Yokohama.
"You don't really know whether they were doing that deliberately or whether it's part of their tactics. They're a team that kicks well and kicks a lot it, while Japan is very aggressive with their line speed, so it certainly wasn't a bad tactic against the Japanese," Foster said.