'We need to stay calm,' says captain Kolisi as pressure mounts ahead of Springboks' rematch with All Blacks

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi says the pressure on his team to beat the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday is “intense”, but he has called for calm ahead of the big showdown at the Cake Tin.

The Boks have lost two of their three Rugby Championship games, including a disappointing 24-17 defeat to New Zealand last week in Auckland, and their defence of the Championship title they won last year hangs by a thread.

“The pressure is intense, but we have to keep our heads,” the 95-cap veteran said. “It is the same as when you are playing a World Cup final — you can’t suddenly start doing things that are out of the ordinary.

“You must prepare exactly the same as you do for every Test. Nothing must change.

“There is so much at stake on Saturday, and so much pressure already, so we don’t need to add any more by adding new things.”

Kolisi says the Boks have prepared meticulously as they fix the areas that went wrong last week, such as the lineouts and breakdowns.

“Apart from Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) coming in at flyhalf and taking charge of the running of the game, and Ruan Nortje and Lood de Jager taking care of the lineouts, nothing special or out of the norm has been done this week.

“If we look back at the games that we have won, the big games we have played, we never did anything different in our preparation.”

The importance of this match in Wellington harks back to when the Boks were still new under Rassie Erasmus and laid down markers by winning in Wellington in 2018 and drawing there in 2019.

“This game is also big on its own in that we want to win and stay in the Rugby Championship,” Kolisi added. And we want to win the Freedom Cup (contested annually between New Zealand and South Africa.”