At the back end of both tests, the All Blacks surged over top of the Boks to prove that their attacking-minded ball movement is tiring the huge South African forwards. <\/p>\n
As the greatest rivalry series returns to Johannesburg for the third instalment<\/a> this weekend, fatigue in the final quarter will be enhanced by the thin altitude air.<\/p>\n To make that count, though, to leave the Boks out on their feet gasping for breath, the All Blacks must first address their poor start last weekend in Cape Town. <\/p>\n The All Blacks can\u2019t afford to allow the Boks to establish their favoured set-piece platform, to impose their route one power carrying and fuel their rabid crowd. <\/p>\n Another sluggish, inaccurate start will leave the All Blacks too much ground to chase and render their last quarter advantage irrelevant. <\/p>\n \u201cWe spoke about trying to start well and we did the opposite,\u201d Roigard reflected with the Herald in Cape Town. \u201cIt\u2019s always hard when you\u2019re chasing the scoreboard. We\u2019re excited to hopefully right a wrong from a pretty average performance from our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n The shaky lineout, ongoing high ball issues, and wasteful kicking in the first half are other improvements the All Blacks must make but weathering the Boks\u2019 early onslaught sits high among their priorities. <\/p>\n Absorbing the opening salvo, preferably not from the ropes, either, is easier said than done. <\/p>\n From the daredevil flyovers to packed stadiums, vocal fans and the frothing Boks, rugby atmospheres don\u2019t get more hostile than these. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of it is the mental side and trying to be present. It was pretty unique last weekend with the planes flying over. Right before kickoff, I thought they were going to crash into the stadium. It\u2019s pretty hard to block that out. It all adds to the occasion. We talk about it so there\u2019s no surprises. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re able to score points first or hold them off so it gets into that grudge match where we\u2019re not chasing the game, that\u2019s a good start. <\/p>\n \u201cWe want to keep the ball in play. Everything will be a lot tougher back at altitude. Everyone felt that. You feel like you\u2019re not doing much but then you\u2019re out of breath. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a massive, physical side. If we can match them at the start and take it to the later stages of the game where there is that element of fatigue, we see a lot of opportunity there. We\u2019d like to think we\u2019re the fitter side and hopefully outwork them. Hopefully this weekend we\u2019re not chasing points and we\u2019re in that area. <\/p>\n \u201cUltimately it comes down to how we start, our discipline and how we defend.\u201d<\/p>\n Roigard\u2019s area of expertise, the breakdown, was compromised in Cape Town as he endured a difficult night attempting to clear the ball amid tangled limbs. <\/p>\n While ball-in-play time was significantly higher compared to the first test, the Boks succeeded in slowing the All Blacks at the source to often stifle their desire to play at speed. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a tactic of theirs but they\u2019re trying to put me and our game drivers on the ground, out of the game. If they\u2019re doing that it\u2019s pretty hard for us to play fast,\u201d Roigard said. <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I have to be smart and move the ball rather than looking for run opportunities early but as the fatigue comes in there\u2019s a few opportunities for myself, Ruben [Love] or our game drivers to start sniping and having a crack.<\/p>\n \u201cLast weekend it was slow ball, a lot of bodies in the way. It was a challenge. I tried to see if the referee was going to do anything about it but he felt like they were all good so we\u2019ve got to adjust to that. Hopefully we can be a bit more brutal with our cleanouts and get some cleaner ball for us to play.\u201d<\/p>\n When they shift through the backline with slick, quick hands to create space on the edges, the All Blacks attack has been lethal. Nine tries to four underlines their attacking success against the Boks. <\/p>\n As one team attempts to play at pace, and the other tries to impose their suffocating squeeze, another clash of styles awaits. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got our strengths and how we want to play which is quite different to the South Africans. Credit to them, the way they scramble defensively and set their line quick it makes it tough to get momentum. Because they are so big, if we can move the ball it\u2019s going to create opportunities and fatigue them so we can run later on.\u201d<\/p>\n With the spotlight shining on Soweto, scene for the third test, there\u2019s nowhere else Roigard would rather be. <\/p>\n Thirty years on from the All Blacks\u2019 first series success in South Africa, the world-class halfback grasps the magnitude that this weekend entails. He\u2019s determined to savour the occasion, and seize the moment. <\/p>\n \u201cThis tour, these games, were going to be the biggest of my career so far. I\u2019ve played at a World Cup but the significance of the tour, the opportunity to win a series over here, and four games against the best team in the world, we don\u2019t take that for granted. <\/p>\n \u201cSeeing how tight the 1996 team are all these years later and the memories they\u2019ve got from what they were able to achieve as a group, being able to live that is pretty cool. <\/p>\n \u201cEllis Park was a bucket list experience to be out there. Last weekend was even more so. You embrace it particularly when you feel like your back is against the wall and the whole stadium, bar a couple of hundred All Blacks fans, wants you to fail. <\/p>\n \u201cNormally you\u2019re hearing cheers when you score a try but here it\u2019s silence. When it does get tight, you look to our leaders \u2013 Ardie [Savea], Jordie [Barrett] \u2013 and they have a look that says \u2018we\u2019ve got this\u2019. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what makes the All Blacks jersey so special. Being part of big moments like these is where you add to the legacy. I love playing these big games. Hopefully we\u2019ve got two more wins to get. We\u2019re up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Liam Napier<\/a> is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n Listen to Elliott Smith\u2019s live commentary on Newstalk ZB Sport and iHeartRadio, or join the Alternative Commentary Collective on iHeartRadio and Radio Hauraki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the back end of both tests, the All Blacks surged over top of the Boks to prove…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[286884,5263,76095,1975,8136,3553,78,25270,111,139,69,213,8137,10809,8225,765,3755],"class_list":["post-587337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-310am","tag-all","tag-altitude","tag-at","tag-blacks","tag-fatigue","tag-in","tag-johannesburg","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-springboks","tag-sunday","tag-target","tag-test","tag-third"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}