Adnaan Mohamed

Auckland – The Springboks are determined make history when they kick-off their Tri-Nations campaign on a winning note against the All Blacks at Eden Park on Saturday.

The last time South Africa won a Test match here was in 1937. According to Springbok captain, John Smit, it’s going to take a tremendous effort from his charges.

“Some of the guys have had a bit of luck in the Super 14 at the same venue.  But I think it’s going to be pretty different. Winning away from home is hard and Eden Park being a fortress for the All Blacks will make it even harder. It will certainly be a big task for us on Thursday,” Smit said at the team hotel on Friday.

“Any sort of an away win in the past will help to instill a little bit of belief. If we execute our game plan with some accuracy we can maybe get a result.  On away games you don’t really have the support like back home.  History has proven that the home side clearly is the favourite,” he explained.

The Bok captain said the team has come a long way since they came together under previous Bok coach Jake White in 2004. Along the way they had some good and bad times culminating in winning the World Cup in 2007. 

“In 2008 when Peter de Villiers took over as coach, it was again a learning curve.  Since then the team has gone from strength to strength.

“It’s a good place to be. We’ve won some games we should have and also lost some that we shouldn’t.  We just need to keep learning from both our wins and losses,” explained Smit.

Smit believes the battle at the breakdown will be crucial to the outcome of the Test match.

“Richie McCaw is not only an outstanding player but he is also a good leader.  The effect that Heinrich Brussow had last year has certainly helped our cause, but he is not around anymore.

“Flo (Francois Louw) who has taken his place this year and has been in pretty good form and it is going to be interesting to see how he goes against Richie,” added Smit.

 South Africa and New Zealand are pretty even when it comes to the strength of the teams on paper, but the Boks seem to have considerably more experience and firepower n the bench. According to Smit it is entirely the coaches’ call how he utilises these players.

“The coach has to decide what the situation is like in the test.  Sometimes injuries force you to use your bench, but sometimes you also have to make a gut call. 

“The coach is pretty fortunate that he has players that can turn up the pace and give the game a different feel. When Danie (Rossouw) comes on he can be quite a devastating ball carrier. Gio (Aplon) can come on and slot in anywhere in the back three and speed things up from out wide. But it depends entirely on the coach,’’ added Smit.