Rassie Erasmus wary of All Blacks' new attacking threat

The Springboks are preparing for a significantly different All Blacks challenge ahead of Saturday’s opening Greatest Rivalry Test in Johannesburg according to head coach Rassie Erasmus.

South Africa recorded a historic 43-10 victory over New Zealand in Wellington last year, but Erasmus believes Dave Rennie’s arrival has brought a clear change in approach.

Springboks Expect High-Tempo All Blacks Attack

Erasmus believes New Zealand are increasingly returning to their traditional attacking strengths under Rennie, with greater emphasis on tempo, multi-phase rugby and distribution between forwards and backs.

“You can see it on social media. They’re advocating a high intensity, running game, with multi-phase attacks. And when you analyse it, it definitely shows in the stats.

“Dave is very sharp. I coached against him with Munster against Glasgow. The big battle is going to be when they have the ball, they’ll have total control of what they do with it, and when we have the ball, we’ll have total control of what we do with it.

"Neither team can tell the other how to use the ball"

Erasmus believes Rennie has already made his attacking intentions clear, but expects the All Blacks to introduce additional tactical variations against South Africa.

The breakdown is one area causing particular concern for the Springboks.

“What concerns us most is how physical and brutal they are at the breakdown.

"They take the ball through so many phases and then they put in a well-timed grubber kick, their attacking kicks are as dangerous as when they have ball-in-hand.

“They’ll have plans they didn’t show in the Nations Championship, little things, such as lineout variations, maybe a front peel or back peel move, and there are things that have caught us out before.”

Erasmus is expected to name the Springboks squad on Thursday for the first Test.