Kiwis underline folly of thinking visitors can start as favourites in Auckland

It was impossible before the decisive Tri-Nations test in Auckland for the brain to keep out an expression which just kept repeating itself.

My Afrikaans has never been that great so forgive me if this should not be repeated in front of all members of the family, but the words that came to mind were "wind gat".

Roughly translated in this instance into "arrogance", it was something that first crossed my mind early in the buildup week when reports from New Zealand centered on South Africa's chances of picking up the bonus point for scoring four tries which would put Australia under pressure.

My problem is not with the team. Coach Harry Viljoen and skipper Bob Skinstad both took pains later to refute any suggestion that they would be targeting four tries and that extra point. As Skinstad so rightly put it, it would be the height of arrogance to go into a test match in New Zealand looking for four tries.

Although they went down 26-15 and were comprehensively outplayed from the opening whistle at Eden Park, there was nothing about the Bok performance which suggested they went onto the field thinking victory was a formality.

Given the mood of the All Blacks on the day, the match may have turned out a lot more one sided had that been the case.

Indeed, had the Springboks taken onto the field the same attitude that was prevalent among some members of the media and the wider public, it could have turned into a rout.

That we South Africans are a strange lot was summed up by a column which appeared in a Cape newspaper on the eve of the match. The writer devoted several column inches to the need to grab the extra bonus point.

His prediction for the game? He thought it would be a relatively easy win for the Boks, it was just in the quest for the four tries that they might be caught short. In his view, the All Blacks were a poor team.

This would not be so remarkable were it not for the fact that two weeks earlier he predicted a convincing win for the same All Blacks when they faced Australia. On the basis of just 80 minutes of rugby, the New Zealanders had suddenly become a mediocre side.

I do not mean to pick on this one person. He was merely conveying an attitude that was prevalent among many people I spoke to between Perth and Auckland. In little over a month the Springboks had gone from being no-hopers when they faced the All Blacks in Cape Town to certain winners when they faced the same team in Auckland.

Not that us South Africans are alone in this. The jingoism and hype flowed thick and fast from the Kiwis when they won in Cape Town. In the buildup to the Dunedin game against the Wallabies, New Zealand rugby appeared to be in a healthy state. But defeat brought with it a whole new perspective, with coach Wayne Smith going into the Eden Park clash with the sword of Damocles hanging over his head.

The next few days will tell whether South Africa undergoes a similar turn- around in attitude now that the Boks have gone from being Tri-Nations favourites, which is how the Cape columnist saw it before Saturday's game, to being assured of the wooden spoon. Remember, SARFU had set second place as their target for this year's tournament when they mapped out their plans for Vision 2003.

But before we set the alarm bells clanging, let's get a sense of perspective.

All the matches in this year's Tri-Nations were intensely competitive affairs which could have gone either way in the event of slight form fluctuations or strategy shifts.

What the All Blacks reminded us all at Eden Park was that there is no such thing as an intrinsically weak New Zealand test team.

Even in their worst form slumps, the All Blacks are always just a few team selections and strategy modifications away from getting it right.

There is just too much talent in that country for them to ever be written off, particularly when they are playing at home. Believe me, many of the critics in other countries say the same thing about South Africa.

Another thing - there is no such thing as a weak All Black pack. As I wrote in my preview before the match, a repeat of the Springbok superiority of the Newlands match could not just be taken as an accepted fact when the All Blacks are the opponents. As Australia had shown a week earlier, dedicating time to hard work on deficiencies can make a huge difference to a team's play in this phase.

In direct contrast to Cape Town, at Eden Park it was the All Blacks who exerted the early scrumming pressure. Just as the Springbok pack had experienced a metamorphosis when Cobus Visagie was reintroduced, so the All Black eight became a different proposition once the bulk of Chris Jack had been added to a pack which retained Troy Flavell as a member of the loose trio.

This meant that the All Blacks were able to match the Springboks in the physical stand-off between the two teams. Unlike Cape Town and Dunedin, the All Black forwards ensured that their team played the entire match on the front foot.

Another shift which brought dramatic results was the change of halfback pairing. There was much gnashing of teeth from South Africans at Viljoen's decision to leave the accurate goalkicking boot of Braam van Straaten out in the wet conditions that prevailed in Cape Town a month ago.

The defeat was largely blamed on this omission. But had Van Straaten played, Smith would have chosen Andrew Mehrtens ahead of Tony Brown as his flyhalf. On the evidence of Eden Park, where Mehrtens dominated large tracts of the game with his tactical kicking prowess, the Canterbury pivot might have transformed the All Black side that played at Newlands into a team much better equipped to play in the wet.

Naas Botha may have best summed up why the Boks lost in Auckland - on the day, they just weren't good enough. You can easily put it another way - on the day, the All Blacks were just too good.

Anton Oliver's team may lose the odd match on their home turf. But no-one who has experienced the intense passion of New Zealand's approach to rugby should ever be lulled into believing that a visiting team can start a match at Eden Park as outright favourites.

As for the Boks, the drama at Subiaco Oval last week may have caused many of us to overlook the complete dominance that Australia enjoyed for most of the second half. Even the much lauded scrumming was not all that clever during that passage of play.

The Boks escaped with a share of the spoils through the incredible guts and tenacity of a team that certainly does not lack spirit or togetherness. As I wrote at the time, it was a result which underlined their re-emergence as a world force.

That does not mean the same as saying they are world beaters who should be expected to go to a place like Eden Park and come away with a victory as if it was just another day at the office.