Springbok head coach Peter de Villiers insists his side’s historic win over the All Blacks in Dunedin last month will have no bearing on the outcome of Saturday’s return fixture between the two teams.
A late Ricky Januarie try helped the World Champions record their first-ever win at Carisbrook but de Villiers believes that result is better consigned to the record books.
"Nothing from that Test will come back and help us on Saturday, or come to haunt us on Saturday,” said de Villiers, whose squad have recorded one win and two loses from their three away games in this year’s Tri Nations.
"If you look at the Wellington Test, and you see the frame of mind that the All Blacks were in – we knew exactly what was in store for us.
"We felt that they would go with the same approach at the House of Pain [Dunedin] since it worked for them so well the week before.
"We tried to take them out of their rhythm a bit, and out of their mindset, and that Test is now over and done, a part of history.”
De Villiers insists the Boks will be concentrating solely on their own game and making sure they perform to the kind of level needed to defeat what he describes as the world’s ‘leading rugby nation’, although he admits that the presence of Dan Carter does have an affect on both teams’ thinking.
"We tried a few things with him [Carter] in Wellington. But we could never get him off his game.
"And for us now to go and concentrate on a guy who is so strong at what he does – rather take his support structures out.
"I knew we had a chance to win the game [in Dunedin] when 14 All Blacks stood and looked around at one All Black to win them the game. Everybody looked at Carter to do something special.
"The difference there is that we have 15 players here. If we can do our jobs, and believe in ourselves, and believe that we are much better in certain areas of the game than any other team in the world, then I think we can go far."
