The Springboks will enter Saturday's Rugby Championship match against the All Blacks with the requisite self-belief to tip up the hosts at home - a cause Springboks great Schalk Burger believes has been done a "huge favour" by avoiding the cauldron of Eden Park.
Regarded as Aotearoa's spiritual home of rugby, the iconic Auckland venue has proven a miserable hunting ground for touring teams. The All Blacks haven't lost there for almost 30 years, dating back to their defeat to the French in 1994.
With New Zealand poised to raise the curtain on the Women's Football World Cup against Norway on the hallowed turf next Thursday, the mouthwatering fixture against the 'Boks has been shifted to Go One Media Stadium Mt Smart.
The All Blacks have played just one test at the home of the NRL's NZ Warriors, putting 102 points on the board against a scoreless Tonga in July 2021.
Former World Rugby Player of the Year and 2017 World Cup winner Burger says the relocation removes a significant mental hurdle for the visitors, as both teams look to lay down a marker just 57 days out from the start of the World Cup in France.
"I think it actually works in our favour, because we had no chance at Eden Park," Burger told Newshub. "Nobody has, but at Mt Smart, the Springboks will have a chance this weekend."
Rugby's oldest rivals haven't met at Eden Park since 2013, when the All Blacks emerged 29-15 victors to seal the Rugby Championship title.
The visit is the first by a South African side in four years and they'll return with relatively fond memories of their last visit. In 2019, a last-minute try by reserve halfback Herschel Jantjes earned the Boks a 16-16 draw at Wellington, a match that also took place two months out from a World Cup.
The previous year, wing Aphiwe Dyantyi's brace of tries inspired the Springboks to a 36-34 at the capital to record their first win on NZ soil since 2009.
Combined with last year's win at Mbombela, Burger reckons the world champions - fresh off an emphatic win over Australia - will have the self-confidence to tip up the All Blacks yet again.
"We've shown in the past that if anyone can turn the All Blacks over, it's the 'Boks, but it's not going to happen easy this weekend," said Burger, who played 86 tests for South Africa from 2003-15.
"Once you've done it before, you believe you can and it's the mindset. A lot of teams come in and don't believe they're good enough to beat the All Blacks, but this side has that belief.
"They got a draw last time they were out here in 2019 and beat them in Wellington in 2018, so the belief is there.
"This group believes it and they know they're good enough to do it."
Both teams enter the contest on the back of one-sided romps in their respective Rugby Championship openers last weekend.
After the second-string Springboks laid waste to Australia at Loftus Versfeld, the All Blacks shut the gate early on the Pumas in Argentina, en route to a 41-12 win.
According to Burger, neither side will read too much into those results, which may have been flattering, due to the disjointed displays from their opponents.
This weekend's 'Boks line-up bears little resemblance to the team that dispatched the Wallabies, with a host of players joining from the advance party that skipped their match at Pretoria to head to Auckland a week early.
The battle of the benches also shapes as a key factor in the match, with the Springboks leaning heavily on their "monster" reserves, with in a 6-2 forwards-to-backs split designed to take advantage of their impact grunt upfront.
The All Blacks have made an uncommon adjustment of their own, eschewing the option of a back-up first-five for Richie Mo'unga - a move Burger suggests may be a mistake, given the form of Damian McKenzie.
"We have a monster bench," said Burger. "If I look at the All Blacks side, it's a tight call between Codie Taylor and Samisoni Taukei'aho, but then you look at their bench and there's no Damian McKenzie - have they missed a trick?
"Time will tell."
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