Why All Blacks believe their ‘plans’ can finally counter Boks in RGR decider

SPOTLIGHT: The famous quote from former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”, has resonated with the All Blacks throughout the Greatest Rivalry Series.

For the past three Tests in South Africa, the Kiwis have known what’s coming from the Springboks but haven’t been able to stop it.

The Boks’ power game has been on full display, and they’ve dominated the scrum battle and key collisions. That is unlikely to change this weekend after Rassie Erasmus made just two changes to his starting lineup.

The message from the Bok camp is clear: they want to win the final Test in Baltimore and claim bragging rights as the first team to win the series in its revamped form.

The All Blacks, on the other hand, won’t make it easy, and, while they cannot win the series outright, a draw in their eyes would be a massive pass mark.

Dave Rennie has been forced to reshuffle his side, with the key talking point being the return of flyhalf Richie Mo’unga, who will earn his first Test cap since the 2023 World Cup final.

One of the players who will also make his first start of the series is lock Patrick Tuipulotu.

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Tuipulotu missed out on the first Test at Ellis Park but featured in three of the four midweek matches against the Stormers, Bulls and Lions before coming off the bench in the second Test in Cape Town.

For the 33-year-old, the match in Baltimore holds massive significance.

“This isn’t a dead rubber game,” he remarked.

“For us, we don’t want them to win the whole series; we are obviously aiming for a draw, and they are aiming to win the series.

“We’ve got to win this [Test], this is a must-win for us.”

Turning his attention to the key areas the All Blacks need to improve on, Tuipulotu said their discipline will need to be sharp.

“We want to play our game, but we don’t want to give away too many penalties and give them entries into the 22.

“I saw that ill-discipline really gave them their shot, and they were able to score more points through that.

“There’s a big focus on us being accurate, but at the same time, we don’t want to be passive and let them play. There’s a lot of onus on us this week.”

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Leading up to the match, the All Blacks forward pack has spoken at length about the ‘plans’ they have in place to negate the Boks in the final Test.

After the loss in Soweto, Sam Darry said he’s confident they can stop South Africa’s maul after the Boks scored off a rolling maul which travelled over 20 metres.

Set-pieces have been a major talking point, and Tuipulotu echoed Darry’s sentiments, revealing that they have ‘plans’ in place to be competitive in that area.

“They’ve got the set-piece dominance, and we’ve struggled to negate that,” he admitted.

“There are a few plans in place in terms of line-out defence, and our scrum plans this week – we don’t want them to be getting an upper hand.

“Receiving kick-offs is another form of set-piece, and we just haven’t been really accurate in that area.

“We’ve just got to nail that job; it’s a strength of their game we’ve got to negate.”

However, having a plan and executing it against the world’s No.1 side are two very different things, and Tuipulotu knows they face a side that has consistently found ways to put them under pressure.

“They’re the best team in the world for a reason and have been putting us under pressure in a lot of these areas.

“Results aside, it’s sort of been hard for us, but that’s the nature of the beast; that’s part of the challenge to sort of test where you are.

“We’re not going to dwell on them being the best and try and put a negative spin on it. Every week, we come in and try to do our best to be positive and play the best footy we can.

“At the end of the day, if they’re the better team, they are going to be the better team, but I feel we’re pretty close.”