Sky the limit for All Blacks, says Boks skipper
LIAM NAPIER
Last updated 12:06 06/10/2012
As the All Blacks edge closer to the world record for the most consecutive test wins, Springboks captain Jean de Villiers grows frightened.
If the Steve Hansen's men secure victory in Soweto tomorrow, along with a clean sweep of the inaugural Rugby Championship, de Villiers, reckons they will go on to smash the record and make it incredibly difficult for anyone else to reach.
He says his side have a duty to defend the record that was last set by Nick Mallett's Boks of 1997-98.
Before them, the All Blacks of 1965-69 won 17-matches in a row.
Technically, Lithuania are the record-holders with 18 connective wins but that is undermined by their tier-three status.
"Records are there to be broken, but it scares the living daylights out of me, thinking of how far they can go," de Villiers said.
With injury-plagued Australia in Brisbane next up before the end-of-year-tour to Europe, the All Blacks will be heavily favoured to create a new benchmark, if they can overcome recovery and compliancy challenges to beat the Boks tomorrow.
"It's possible that if they beat us on Sunday they may go on to win all of their games on the end-of-year-tour and eventually set the record at 23 tests or something like that," de Villiers said.
"That's quite a big record.
"For us as South Africans, being shareholders of that record, we have a responsibility to protect it."
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw issued some harsh words at training yesterday as he stressed the need for his side to be in the right headspace and focused on the task in-front of them.
"When you talk about those sorts of things you don't get past tomorrow. We have to perform well tomorrow or else our progress will be undone," McCaw said.
"That's what we need to do first, ensure we produce a good performance. We did it last week in Argentina, but not being able to back it up would be hugely disappointing."
The All Blacks' world-class fitness standards have been a key factor in their success this season. McCaw was expecting a typically tight, physical dog-fight with the Boks, but was confident his men would go the distance and come out on top.
"Our guys are in pretty good shape fitness wise, you saw that last week there was a fair bit of running. We back ourselves to be able to play for 80-minutes, in some of these games you've got to," he said.
"It might be that one moment with a couple of minutes to go where you've got to get it dead right, that might be the difference.
"Hopefully the guys can still execute at that point when the pressure is on."
Boks' first five-eighths Johan Goosen is expected to assume the kicking duties after his injured heel responded to treatment.
Goosen missed two kicks in his starting debut for the Boks last week, but de Villiers backed the inexperienced 20-year-old to handle the occasion against the All Blacks.
"I'm very confident in Johan's ability," de Villiers said. "He kicked for the first time this week on Wednesday and it went very well.
"I can tell you that not a lot bothers the Goose. He just gets on with the job. And the bigger the event, the bigger the response.
"He has a great head on his shoulders, he will be able to handle the pressure. But then it also has to be a case of the other 14 players taking as much of the pressure off him as we can."
