Despite the gloom and doom surrounding South Africa's "conservative" or "boring" game plan, call it what you will - as rugby fans we were treated to one hell of a Test match last Saturday to mark the 100th encounter between New Zealand and South Africa. There is no denying that New Zealand had a rather off day at the office and whether or not that was a direct result of South Africa's controversial playing style remains hotly contested by fans and pundits in both camps. South Africa's physicality was as always immense, and Captain Siya Kolisi really did lead from the front in delivering it to New Zealand. Nevertheless, as the game wore on and South Africa seemed to have the edge we like many were left speechless at the number of times the Springboks kicked away valuable possession and poorly to boot (excuse the pun). As a result, you can't help feeling that they simply got lucky towards the end that the scoreline wasn't larger in favor of New Zealand. It was a narrow loss agreed but one that could have been potentially embarrassing had New Zealand brought their A game.

As for New Zealand, they were not at their best last weekend by a considerable margin. We will agree that some of that was caused by the relentless pressure they were under from South Africa and an inability to effectively deal with the constant aerial assault favored by the Springboks. However, one thing the All Blacks do better than any other team on the planet is fix the things that didn't work for them the previous weekend. This is not a team that is stuck in its ways. They adapt and restructure themselves quicker and more effectively than any International side out there. New Zealand will definitely have some tricks up their sleeves on Saturday, but judging from the press statements coming out of the Springbok camp, we're not convinced that South Africa have their own set of surprises in store.