Kieran Read's 'key' for All Blacks revenge over Springboks

A Rugby World Cup final rematch beckons at the altitude of Johannesburg’s infamous Ellis Park, and the All Blacks are coming into the contest with plenty to prove according to a team legend.

The Springboks await in what will be the two nations’ first clash since the one-point thriller that crowned the South Africans back-to-back world champions in Paris last October. A lot has changed in the 10 months since.

The Kiwis are under new leadership and finding their feet in new structures and systems, and it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing under Scott Robertson’s new vision.

Two scrappy wins over England and a loss to Argentina have left plenty of room for concern over how quickly the All Blacks can find their rhythm and just how high their ceiling is after a relatively poor run of results during the last World Cup cycle.

127-cap former All Black Kieran Read says with the little room for error there is against the world champs, New Zealand will need to be on top of their game.

“That’s a huge Test. The key that I’ve seen over these five Tests is we’ve probably only just got our mindset right,” the 38-year-old told The Breakdown. “It’s been a little bit up and down, probably trying to figure out a lot of things with the new coaches and new systems.

“But going into a big Test match, especially against South Africa over there, you just can’t be thinking of too much else other than being as physically dominant as you can.

“So, essentially that’s what I think the leaders will be talking about, making sure they get a performance that showcases their physicality like what we saw last night.

“But 100 per cent they’re going to need that because what we’ve seen from the Boks so far this year against Ireland and those two Tests against the Wallabies, is that they’re not going away, they’re not shirking those traditional methods of coming hard at you in the physical battle.”

Read, who succeeded Richie McCaw as New Zealand captain in 2016, says while Robertson will be ready to set the tone for the Kiwis ahead of the first South Africa Test, it’s the leaders within the playing group who should take that responsibility and run with it.

The All Blacks have also produced two big wins so far in 2024, beating Fiji by 42 points in San Diego and bouncing back to beat Los Pumas by 32 in round two of The Rugby Championship. While the latter offers the team some momentum heading into the South Africa Tests, Read says there’s still a long way to go for this team.

“I don’t think they’ve played their best footy yet, it’s probably been a long way off. Last night they got it right for 40 minutes and it really came about through some simple things done right, like kicking game. The Argies were just slightly off and it shows that you’ve got to be right on every game.

“There’s no concern but I think what they’ll have to get right playing against South Africa is the way they defend. South Africa, yes they’re going to come at us through the maul, so our maul defence has got to be strong; it probably hasn’t been the strongest this year so far. And then, our ability to turnover ball, to defend across the park and stop their momentum, stop their gain line.

“That’s what the Argies did, they managed to get on top of us a few times, the English did that as well earlier in the year.”