All Blacks: Sense of hostility looms over return test

All Blacks captain Rodney So'oialo and Springbok flanker Schalk Burger clashed last week. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Stash the political correctness. This is going to be a fiery test tonight with enough combustion from the second All Blacks-Springbok clash to provide underground heating for Carisbrook.

Both sides played out a coaching charade yesterday with questions for referee Matt Goddard when they know there will be no retreat, no backdown tonight at the House Of Pain.

This will be the sort of international where the side to blink first will be run over, where the battleaxe will replace the rapier, the scythe will take over from the knife.

The All Blacks are defending an unbeaten 30-test stretch at home and garnering a new group of players as they emerge from the last World Cup tribulations.

The Boks are defending the prestige of their World Cup victory, they want to break open a more expressive style of rugby under new coach Peter de Villiers and are desperate, some might say obsessed, with cracking the decade of dominance the All Blacks have built against them in New Zealand.

There is a sense of brutality and certainly hostility about this return test, the first in Dunedin for three years, with doubts the all-Australian sheriff team will be able to manage the match.

Sanctimonious statements have been delivered about teams' responsibilities but there seems to be an even greater edge to this test than a week ago in Wellington.

The Boks will sense a chance to unsettle a young All Black pack shorn of the enforcer Brad Thorn, without the supreme forager Richie McCaw or the wise tighthead Greg Somerville.

Half the All Black pack _ John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Jerome Kaino, Adam Thomson _ have just 14 caps between them while every Bok forward has played that or more tests themselves.

Both sides were shovelling out admirably politically correct lines yesterday about responsibilities to the game but many of the 29,000 at Carisbrook and many others who tune in to broadcasts will do so in anticipation of some violence.

Call it what you like, legalised mayhem or strongarm tactics, but part of the fascination is to see how close to the edge teams take it and how the officials will deal with it.

Given Goddard's history and the twitchy performances of his sidekicks James Leckie and Paul Marks, rugby may only make intermittent appearances in this match.