All Blacks coach Foster goads his charges to man up: 'The Boks are not one-trick ponies'

In Mbombela

All Blacks coach Ian Foster admitted they don't just have to man up, but need to do so smartly for their Rugby Championship clash against the Springboks in Mbombela on Saturday.

The All Blacks, who haven't lost to the Springboks in South Africa since 2014, go into the game on the back of four losses in five Tests.

That rare return has placed them under a different sort of pressure they hardly experience and Foster made nine changes to the matchday 23 beaten by Ireland last month.

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Foster said the Boks are far from one-trick ponies, but as the All Blacks, they also need to tighten up their game.

"It's about the team manning up because the Boks are not one-trick ponies. That's a fallacy," Foster said.

"What they do well, they do really well. You don't become the world champions if you're not proficient at a whole lot of things.

"They're a great team and they play well, but it's also about us not getting too hung up on that either.

"We have to go in with the mindset of wanting to play our game. There's an edge and we know we can play better.

"However, we can't do that by worrying about the opposition. We have to be excited and hone in on how we want to play.

"We'll man up, but we need to be smart and physical, but we'll need a good combination of both."

South Africa

15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Trevor Nyakane

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Salmaan