POLL: What will it take for the Boks to beat the All Blacks?
Following a ruthless display against France in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup in Cardiff last weekend, the All Blacks are the bookies' favourites to trump the Springboks in their semi-final showdown at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon.
Kick-off is at 17h00 SA time.
By contrast to the defending champions' 62-13 mauling of the French, the Boks were made to sweat for their 23-19 victory over a gallant Welsh side.
But, as All Blacks captain Richie McCaw very wisely pointed out: "All we have done is earned the right to pitch up at training on Monday. We haven't won anything."
A modest assessment of the New Zealanders' goals, yes, and indicative of their match by match approach to their campaign, yes, but to date the Boks' bitter southern hemisphere rivals have barely been stretched on the road to the last four.
While they did the job against the French, one got the impression that Les Bleus were in 'surrender' mode following apparent discord in their camp in the build-up to the quarter-final.
New Zealand have won 10 of the last 12 meetings with the Boks (since 2010), the Boks' most recent success coming in what was a Rugby Championship 'dead rubber" at Ellis Park in Rugby Championship clash in 2014.
The only negative statistic relating to New Zealand is that the two-time champions have NEVER won a World Cup on foreign soil.
So we pose the question...
(File photo: Gallo Images)