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Cape Town - While the whole of South Africa may have been stunned by the Springboks' performance against New Zealand at Newlands on Saturday, the All Blacks certainly weren't.
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"We tried to tell anyone that wanted to listen that Albany, even though the score looked ridiculous, wasn't a reflection of how the game went," All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said after the match.
"They never disappoint us ... they always turn up when we play them in this country."
In the end, the Boks fell just short, going down 25-24. But this display was a million miles apart from the one that saw the South Africans hammered 57-0 in Albany three weekends ago.
Going into Saturday's clash, the Boks had conceded 23 tries in their last three matches against the world champions while scoring just one.
Only the most die-hard supporter would have still believed that a South African triumph was possible, but with just one point in it, it could have gone either way.
Springbok loose forward and vice-captain Siya Kolisi revealed after the match that the All Blacks had known that the Boks would bounce back.
Kolisi, who has been immense for the Boks this year, shared a post-match chat with Kiwi star Sonny Bill Williams.
"They knew this was going to be a game they needed to turn up for," Kolisi said of the All Blacks.
"I was speaking to Sonny Bill after the game, and he said they knew that this was just our personality.
"We are proud people and it's tough to play in South Africa, because people want us to win all the time. We know that.
"We didn't need motivation for today ... everything was set for us to perform. It was a great game of rugby. They brought everything they could and we did too."
Kolisi added that, despite the obvious improvement, the Boks were nowhere near satisfied.
"It gives us a lot of confidence. Although we played well today, we weren't satisfied at all. We wanted to win badly today," he said.
"We had to turn up today. We told ourselves that we were going to give it everything ... we wanted some respect back. The boys stood up well and we stuck to the plans.
"We wanted to prove ourselves to one another ... we said we were going to work for each other and that's the most important thing."
With the Rugby Championship now over, the Boks leave the competition with two wins over Argentina, two draws to Australia and two defeats to the All Blacks.
Saturday clash, Kolisi says, was their best performance of the competition.
"I think it's the best we've played," he said.
"The mistakes let us down ... that's where they score the most of their tries, with turnover ball. Today that was our downfall ... one last mistake and they go and score.
"I've never been so proud of us and the way our captain led us today ... I don't think you we could have asked for any more."
