Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Stop letting the Springboks get into your head

Can you please stop letting the Springboks get into your head? Cause that is clearly what they're up to. That's why Rassie Erasmus has expressed all surprise at Razor's selections.

He wants the team to second guess themselves.

Who cares what he thinks?

Now, he said, Oh, I'm surprised Fabian Holland's on the bench. It's designed to make Razor and all the lads think they've got this wrong already.

And this is why he's called in Fuff de Clark - he doesn't need Fuff de Clark.

That means he's got 4 halfbacks. What do you need 4 halfbacks for? He's just trying to remind the All Blacks that he's got 4 more halfbacks than they've got.

That's what he's up to. It's just getting inside the head. It's niggling them, and it's working, isn't it? Cause go and have a look at the polls that there are today. The 2 polls on 2 different news websites asking if we think that the All Blacks are gonna win.

And both of them have got the All Blacks winning, but jeez, only by just that, it's by a tiny margin. It's only like 53%, 54%, to the Boks winning 46, 47%. 

Normally, we've got way more confidence. Like, normally, we've got confidence that is a little OTT. 

But this is Eden Park. This is the fortress. If you're gonna win anywhere, you're gonna win at Eden Park.

Where's our confidence?

Even the ABs are nervous. If you heard Scottie Hansen, the assistant coach on with us yesterday, he admitted that.

Now look, I don't think the All Blacks are gonna lose. I think they're gonna win. Because this game is more important to the All Blacks than it is to the Springboks, because to the Springboks it's just another game.

That's all it is, right?

But to the All Blacks, it's defending the fortress and defending the fortress when they can see that the country doesn't think that they're gonna be able to, and the ABs thrive on this stuff.

Remember when Fozzie was about to get the sack? Mark Robinson from NZR flew over to Joburg to give him the sack. Remember when that was about to happen?

Suddenly, the All Blacks just rallied and beat the Springboks to stop him getting the sack because they had something to play for.

And the same is true here, they've got something to play for.

Plus, as Scotty Hansen said yesterday, the All Blacks seem to play better when they're nervous.

It's when people expect them to win, when they expect to win that they weirdly drop the ball.

Now, don't forget, we might have been beaten by the Argies, but the Boks were beaten by the Wallabies. So they're not on that much of a streak, are they?

Relax. The All Blacks have got it.

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