The Springboks edged their archrivals 12-11 in the final of the international extravaganza to clinch back-to-back RWC titles and their fourth in the history of the competition, and with the All Blacks having last lost a Test match at their iconic Eden Park ground back in 1994, Brown expected the match-up to be another epic encounter.<\/p>\n
The Springboks touched down in Auckland shortly before midnight on Wednesday night and, after having a gym and recovery day on Thursday, they returned to the training field for the first time on Friday in the first of two training sessions this week, before they switch into full-out Test-match mode on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s probably the biggest game since the Rugby World Cup Final, so the players are excited,\u201d said Brown. \u201cThe All Blacks are going to be desperate to win, and so will the Springboks, which should make for an amazing game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Boks may have won their last four matches against the All Blacks, and although Brown said playing in their backyard was always a challenge, he said they were looking forward to the contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feeling in the camp is mainly excitement,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Eden Park record is on the line, and it\u2019s an amazing opportunity for us to go out there and take on the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former All Black flyhalf said the margins in the competition were very small, especially with all four participating teams having won a match in the first two rounds, but he was hopeful that they could take a step forward in their campaign on this tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery Test is important in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, and it\u2019s always going to come down to one or two games, so hopefully we can win the key ones and make a push in New Zealand, and return to South Africa with some points on the board,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n
Asked what the team had to do to break their hoodoo at Eden Park, where the Boks last defeated the All Blacks in 1937, Brown said: \u201cWe have to make sure we prepare well, be excited about the challenge, put our best foot forward on the day, and play as hard as we can when we get onto the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown was pleased with the way the team had settled in in New Zealand since arriving at their hotel in the early hours of Thursday morning and said there was a good vibe in the camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team travelled well,\u201d said Brown. \u201cObviously, the first couple of days (after the long journey) are all about recovery and starting to get our plans together to get ready to take on the All Blacks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Springboks edged their archrivals 12-11 in the final of the international extravaganza to clinch back-to-back RWC titles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-103628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}