All Blacks v Springboks: Prepare for bombs, says Jean de Villiers

The Springboks' game plan has undoubtedly evolved post-2023 Rugby World Cup. Pace, width and speed have been the name of the game as the attack looks to involve either speedsters or edge-forwards between the tramlines.

But the Boks came unstuck against the counter-attacking Wallabies by playing too much rugby in Round 1. Rassie Erasmus'charges rectified the situation in Round 2 in Cape Town, returning to playing for territory, bruising carries, and of course: the contestable kick.

The likes of Cheslin Kolbe, Canan Moodie and the tall timbers in the forwards showed their skill under the highball, often regaining possession and putting the defence on the back foot.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Buenos Aires, the All Blacks were shown up by their hosts in the aerial battle, leading to a historic Los Pumas win.

Speaking on the DSPN podcast, de Villiers recounted how his 2009 Bok side rained down midfield bombs on the All Blacks to earn three successive wins that year. The accurate boot of Fourie du Preez combined with the aerial skills of JP Petersen and Bryan Habana produced plenty positive outcomes.

"It's fair to say that that will be a tactic this weekend again, where we did see a vulnerability in the air from New Zealand at times," said the former centre.

"And, you know, you take a guy like Cheslin Kolbe, who is not the biggest, but he gets in the air and he gets quite high in the air, being able to compete for those balls, so good at that.

"Someone like a Canan Moodie, also really good [in the air] and it should be an interesting battle.

"If you are saying that it's probably going to be wet as well, then even more so. It's going to be for the scraps on the ground, and the kicking game will have a big part to play in that.

"it's a skill execution. So the better you do it, the better the odds of getting the ball back. So it's having that contest in the air as well, where the traffic is not that much. Even now, you know, you've got a far clearer run into being able to contest with a new nose.

"So if your skill execution is really good and your contesting is really good, the odds are that you'll get back more than what you won. And also from a territory point of view, now at least you are, you know, call it between 15 and 25 metres closer to the opposition try line, you know, whether that is on attack or then defence.

"So, yeah, that will be an interesting battle and certainly a battle that we will see on the weekend. And, you know, as long as it remains a contest in the air, I think then you're going well. It's going to be about the scraps. You know, it's going to be about the bounce of the ball, the bravery, the commitment to when the ball is loose to be there first.

"It's not just the guy contesting, it's about the other players around the ball as well being able to, when there's a ball bobbing wherever, to be able to jump on it, you know, secure the ball and from there you can attack again.

"So it's much more than just going up. And it's about the execution and the plan with that, not just the guy kicking and the guy chasing, but everyone else around as well."