The All Blacks continued to make all the right noises about their traditional rivalry with the Springboks and how much SA forces more from them, despite evidence suggesting otherwise. The sides meet at Newlands on Saturday in the final round of the Rugby Championship, with the title already back in the All Blacks’ hands for a fifth time in six years. New Zealand players and coaches have been on a charm offensive, talking up the hosts, Cape Town, Newlands, fans and maybe even the giant tortoises that roam the gardens of their plush southern suburbs hotel. You would swear recent contests between the sides had all been on a knife’s edge. After thrashing the Boks 57-0 in Albany nearly three weeks ago, and 57-15 in Durban and 41-13 in Christchurch in 2016, the gap between the sides appears to be widening. But, anyone intimately involved suggests that it is all an illusion, the scores do not matter and the Boks are much closer to the All Blacks’ standard than those results show. "We felt ...
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