‘We’ve done our homework,’ says Stick as Boks ready for Mo’unga, Taylor and Co

The Springboks are expecting a huge fight from an experienced All Blacks team in the finale of Rugby's Greatest Rivalry. The Springboks are geared up and ready to face a more experienced and battle-hardened All Blacks team in the finale of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, USA on Saturday (kick-off 11:10pm SA time). With the Boks taking a 2-1 lead into the series decider, the All Blacks have rung the changes for the final game in an effort to draw the series, with eight made to the starting 15 that played in Soweto over the past weekend, with some other changes injury forced. Although they suffered a major blow in losing talismanic 112-cap skipper Ardie Savea for the finale, they have loaded up with experienced winners in other departments to make up for that loss, and to hopefully give them an edge over the Boks. Coming in at hooker and as captain is 111-capped Codie Taylor for the 25-capped Asafo Amua, while the 93-capped Anton Lienert-Brown replaces the injured 29-capped Quinn Tupaea in the midfield. Mo’unga back Veteran 56-capped flyhalf Richie Mo’unga, who hasn’t played for the All Blacks since the 2023 World Cup final after continuing his club career in Japan over the last three years, is back and replaces the 10-capped Ruben Love. On the bench the All Blacks have also brought in the 144-capped Beauden Barrett and 88-capped Rieko Ioane, who they will be able to call upon at any stage of the match. Speaking on Friday ahead of the match, Bok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick admitted that they were expecting an extremely tough challenge from the All Blacks, especially with the inclusion of Mo’unga and other experienced players across their side. “We know Richie Mo’unga is world-class. As the coaching staff, we expected that selection. Even Ruben Love, the way he’s been playing as an upcoming star, he’s been great for the All Blacks,” said Stick. “They will be even more bold tomorrow when it comes to keeping the ball alive and trying to use the space in the wider channels, and we know how dangerous he (Mo’unga) is. We’ve played against him many times, and we’ve done our homework. “The key thing for us is that we enforce our game onto them and ensure that we pitch up physically on the day. We’ve seen in the past three games that if you’re not at your best, they’ve got what it takes to punish you because of the quality of players in their team. “If you look at the outside centre position, they have a guy like Anton Leinert-Brown with his experience. It is a world-class team, we know they’re desperate to level the series, but in the same breath we want to make sure that we keep on making our people back at home proud, so we’ll give our best.” Strong finish With this the first traditional Test series between the two nations since 1996, Stick said that their was no tougher Test, other than the business end of a World Cup campaign, and added that the Boks just hoped to finish off strong. “In my experience, it doesn’t get tougher than this. It’s like playing four World Cup finals in four weeks,” claimed Stick. “We’ve seen how close the games we’ve played so far have been. Both teams are trying to enforce their style of play. You can see the All Blacks don’t play hide and seek in terms of how they want to play. That’s something I enjoy. “We might be leading (the series) 2-1, but we know on the flipside they are desperate to level it. We just want to ensure we finish properly.”