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'Poked a bear': Neil Barnes on the Springboks' response awaiting the All Blacks
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Straight-shooting All Blacks assistant coach Neil Barnes has no illusions about the Springboks’ motivation heading into the second Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.
Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks will take on the All Blacks in Cape Town after falling to their first defeat since Eden Park in 2025, winning twelve Tests in between the two contests with the Kiwis.
But the All Blacks, under new head coach Dave Rennie, rocked up to Ellis Park and took home the chocolates, claiming their biggest winning margin over the Springboks at the storied ground.
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The Kiwis, who head into the second Test match with seven wins from seven games in 2026, are preparing for a Springboks bounce-back performance.
“But mate, I don’t know if you’ve ever poked a bear before. I sort of know what’s coming, and so we’ll be preparing for a beast that’s going to be even bigger than the last one.,” Barnes told Ryan Bridge on the NZ Herald.
“That’ll be a hell of a battle. So we know that we’ve got to be a s***load better than what we were this week.
“We can’t survive that type of pressure every time. The Springboks made a truckload of mistakes in that game, which led us back into it.
“If they were clinical, we wouldn’t have had a chance. So we’ve got to improve our game tenfold if we want to win the next one. So we’re very clear on that.”
The senior assistant pinpointed their ball-carrying stats as the most worrying part of their first Test review, but he also found some important positives.
“We had to survive a hell of a lot of pressure, to be honest; we didn’t get it right in the first half. They were all over us, knocking us down.
“We couldn’t even get the advantage line; probably the poorest stats we’ve had for the whole tour, to be honest. So yeah, to survive all that pressure and then turn the game back on them was pretty impressive.
“So can only commend the guys for the way they handled all that pressure and then turned it all around for us.”
It’s business as usual for Erasmus, naming his Test squad on Monday, ahead of travelling to Cape Town for the second Test match.
But the Boks will be sweating on the fitness of inspirational captain Siya Kolisi and star winger Cheslin Kolbe, who are fighting fit to feature in Cape Town.
Barnes explained that no matter who plays for the Springboks in the second Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, he feels they have the processes to continue their winning form.
“Oh, look, we’re pretty lucky to have really good people here. Gilbert Enoka does a lot of work with a group of the players, preparing them for what it might be like,” Barnes told Bridge.
“Part of that was just learning to handle pressure situations and staying calm and enjoying those moments, so that when you’re actually calm in mind, you can handle them, and then when the opportunities come, take them.”
