By 3 News online staff
The All Blacks have to play expansively to beat South Africa in the Rugby Champions this Saturday says 3 News rugby reporter Jim Kayes.
Reporting from Dunedin where he has been all week in the lead up to the Test, Kayes says: “Run it [and] we’ll win it”.
“With Aaron Cruden at first-five I think they’re (All Blacks) going to have to run it. He’s a beautiful runner of the game – runner with the ball – and he’s got some good backs outside him,” Kayes says.
He says the combination of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith, who benefited from their game time against Argentina, have had a chance to gel and will be better off for it this week.
“They’ve got to play expansively. They’ve got to score tries and they’ve got to run the Springboks off their feet under that roof (Forsyth Barr Stadium’s closed roof).”
Kayes says the All Blacks first must get a bit of parity up front, kick the goals on offer and play accurate football before upping the tempo.
Catching the ball, a game basic, must also be a priority and cutting out the amount of ball being dropped.
“The All Blacks have talked for the last couple of months about playing this expansive, high-octane game and I think we’re going to see a continuation of that.
“With no wind or rain like we had in Wellington last weekend, I think at last these backs are going to get a bit of a crack at it.”
But he doesn’t expect that style of play to come from both teams.
“South Africa will pretty much stick to what we’ve seen… a lot of kicking, a lot of bashing it up through the forwards,” says Kayes.
To beat the unbeaten All Blacks though, the Springboks must put aside their recent indifferent form and forget about being without “ferocious” players such as Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield and Schalk Berger.
Kayes says without their forward pack stars in recent years the Springboks are a shadow of their former selves.
“It’s fair to say they’re not really the terrifying Springboks of old”.
But Kayes does see them having some firepower, which if taken lightly could hurt the New Zealand side.
“I quite like Jean de Villiers as a player… I think he’s a very good midfielder. I see him as a bit of a threat,” he says.
Despite the relatively unknown and untested forward pack, Kayes is wary.
“It is a traditional strength of South Africa. They’re going to try and squeeze the pips out of the All Blacks and if they are going to do that they might just win the game – I don’t think so though,” he says.
3 News