Springboks and Kiwis resume rivalry

Never fear. When you meet Krige's wry smile and hear him gently guffaw that the chances of him not getting rucked are nonexistent. Or when Justin Marshall, who has faced Springbok fury more times than any other player, tells you "It's going to be like it always is - one hell of a battle" you're somehow reassured that the roof of the Telstra Dome could still be blown off tomorrow.

It's going to be titanic because the two nations whose identities are inextricably bound up in rugby still can't bear the prospect of defeat. Marshall suggests otherwise, insisting that the nation's reaction to the All Blacks' sensational loss in the 1999 Cup had "made us grow, not only as players but as a country". Really? He may be about to discover differently.

Desperation is the key word. All Blacks coach John Mitchell can sniff "a real edge of desperation" in the revivalist Springboks, but his counterpart Rudi Straeuli must scent the same urgency from New Zealand, who expect to win every World Cup but haven't done so for 16 years - their sole triumph. The losing coach must know he will be a goner. Forget the All Blacks' champagne attack and Swiss cheese defence against the Welsh. Tomorrow, Marshall is sure, it will be like this: "A confrontational grind. They'll play it tight, wear you down, try to capitalise when you're tired. It's going to be pick and go, drive and maul, continually draining and wearying you."

This was the way the Boks played it in Dunedin in August when they narrowly lost 19-11, their sixth successive defeat by the All Blacks but a huge improvement on the record 52-16 thrashing they'd suffered three weeks earlier in Pretoria. Once this fixture had always been a 50-50 call. Now, though, the New Zealanders have won 18 and lost just six of their 25 encounters since the Springboks were readmitted to world rugby 11 years ago.

Still, one thought nags away at the Kiwis: in the World Cup, it's played two, lost two - the third-place play-off defeat four years ago and, of course, the famous Mandela final of 1995.

The Boks' win against Samoa - "clinical", Marshall called it - does concern New Zealanders. Up front, they worry that the Springboks' tight five look equipped to outplay theirs and that their dynamic back row could make the sort of holes that Wales did.

One other thing. Marshall concedes that Australia is probably the game that New Zealanders most want to win these days but when you listen to veteran Boks like Joost van der Westhuizen, you sense that to them the All Blacks never stopped being the game.

"Up to now, the Aussies have backed the underdog," noted Straeuli. "But I don't know who they dislike most - us or the All Blacks."

Actually, in a perfect world, they'd like to see them both lose. One of them will - and the crash will be mighty and ugly. It's going to be just great.