Damian de Allende knows how long a week is in Test-match rugby and the Springbok midfield maestro is eager to extend the All Blacks’ misery by one more loss when the teams face off at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Springboks won the first of two back-to-back Tests against New Zealand in Nelspruit last week when they registered a 26-10 victory – their second-biggest winning margin against the All Blacks.

New Zealand have now lost five of their past six Test matches, which may suggest that they are there for the taking at altitude but, having been on the receiving end of a few tough defeats, Bok centre De Allende urged his teammates not to ease up this week.

“They are going through a tough time and I hope it passes for them but not this week!” De Allende said with a grin. “They have so many gamebreakers and pretty soon the passes are going to start sticking and they will be devastating.

“They are so highly skilled, they can throw the ball around from anywhere on the pitch and you never know what is coming, and we know we have to stay alert and aware for the entire 80-odd minutes.”

De Allende was part of the Springbok teams beaten 41-13 and 57-15 by the All Blacks in 2016 and then 57-0 in Albany in 2017, the heaviest loss South Africa has had against New Zealand.

“What we went through in 2016 and 2017 was very tough,” De Allende said. “Then Rassie [Erasmus] and Jacques [Nienaber] came in and they got buy-in from the players regarding their philosophy on how to win Test matches.

“They had a plan, they were consistent in everything they did from selection to gameplan,” De Allende explained. “There was alignment with everything we did and an emphasis on the importance of every minute of every Test match, and Jacques brought in a new mentality on defence.

“From that first series we played against England in 2018 they kept pushing us on to go harder and make better decisions on the field, and the harder we went, the greater the reward we got.”

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