All Blacks wary of Boks’ bite
THERE might be 100 years of history on the line, but All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor admits you don’t have to look too far back to know how tough a test the Springboks will be.
The two proud rugby sides will go head-to-head for the 100th time at Townsville’s Queensland Country Bank Stadium in a Test match that also marks 100 years since the two sides first played in 1921.
While the All Blacks and Springboks have had contrasting starts to the Rugby Championship, Taylor warned his side could not become complacent about the South Africans’ b a c k - t o - b a c k losses to the Wallabies.
The same South African side lost to the All Blacks in the 2019 World Cup pool games, before going on to take out the world title. They are a team that learns from their mistakes, and quickly.
“Every game that I’ve played (against them) has been really tight, really tough, and it’s always a physical battle,” Taylor told allblacks.com.
“I would say they’ll be pretty pumped for this one, and we know that every time we play them, they step up, so it’s going to be a good challenge.
“We’ve done pretty well so far and we have been looking forward to this challenge. They’ve earned the right to be world champs and No.1, so it’s going to be a pretty exciting opportunity for us this week to get out and put on a display that, hopefully, we can be proud of.”
The clash kicks off at 5pm.