Louw will not be part of any cavalcade in honour of the New Zealand visitors

DURBAN: The All Blacks juggernaut rolled into Umhlanga Rocks in Durban yesterday afternoon by police escort from King Shaka International Airport, a cavalcade that is the norm for government officials in South Africa.

But while the Kiwis would have been embarrassed by the pomp and ceremony, one wonders if there was anything symbolic about the New Zealanders being perched up on a ridge overlooking Durban North while the Springboks were nestled down the road in Umhlanga village?

Springbok flank Francois Louw is having none of the rugby world’s fawning adulation of the world champions. The 31-year-old veteran of 51 Tests for South Africa does not believe that the All Blacks are feudal lords and the Springboks mere subservient serfs.

“Of course they are beatable, we came within two points of beating them in the Rugby World Cup last year,” Louw said. “The record they are closing in on (the world record of 17 consecutive Test wins) is their business. We will look to the fact that we almost beat them in the World Cup semi-final, and we can beat them on Saturday if we continue to improve our overall performance over 80 minutes, while in our minds believing that they are not invincible.

“We are playing the All Blacks in South Africa and while they are playing brilliant rugby, they are definitely beatable. It is going to be a heck of a game, but in no ways are we going into this game on the back foot, with the mindset of trying to survive. We are going to formulate our game plan and affect it to the best of our ability.”

Louw, who has started 17 consecutive Tests for the Springboks at openside flank, feels the Boks are due a good performance.

“We are coming off a challenging time, our three Rugby Championship away matches were not kind to us, but we have ingested a great deal over that painful period and after beating Australia last week in Pretoria, we are in a position to kick on to a new level that will hopefully get us a win this weekend,” he said.

Louw, who is himself has improved his game in recent months, says that the Boks will take a great deal out of their performance against the All Blacks in Christchurch despite ultimately losing that match by an embarrassing margin of 41-13. “In that game we hung tough for 50 minutes and then let it slip,” Louw said. “Since then we have reviewed the whole championship, and we feel we have made some strides. We know we are some way off the finished product, and that while we have shown glimpses of brilliance we know that at Test-match level it is all about consistency, and we are way off that to date.”

The Boks were generally poor in labouring to a win over the Wallabies over the weekend and Louw accepts that a realistic chance to win Saturday’s game against the Kiwis will be as much down to improvement in performance as it is to mental belief that the win is possible.

“The mental side of rugby is huge, Test match rugby even more so. It is not just about thinking positively to win ... you also have to dig deep as individuals to find what it is you must contribute so that the collective has the best shot of winning the game,” he said.

But can the battling Boks of 2016 create the belief that they can win?

“Not one Springbok player does not rise that little bit more for the All Blacks. They lay down that haka, and you respond,” Louw said. “We will work really hard on our game plan this week but I can assure you that emotionally and mentally each guy will naturally rise to this occasion.”

Not one Springbok player does not rise that little bit more for the All Blacks. They lay down that Haka, and you respond,” Louw said.