‘It’s going to be a fiery one’ – Brodie Retallick

Colin Newboult

Brodie Retallick of the All Blacks scores a try during the first Bledisloe Cup match between Australia and New Zealand at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Saturday, August 18, 2018. (AAP Image/Steve Christo)

All Blacks’ outstanding second-row Brodie Retallick is expecting another bruising encounter when they go head-to-head with South Africa in Wellington.

The Springboks are renowned for their physicality and they showed plenty of that in their dominant 35-17 triumph over Australia in the opening round of the Rugby Championship.

Rassie Erasmus has since made a number of changes for Saturday’s match, bringing the majority of their big guns back including Faf de Klerk, Malcolm Marx and Duane Vermeulen, who captains the side.

A number of this weekend’s team featured in the visitors’ shock 36-34 triumph at Westpac Stadium last year and Retallick, no doubt stung by that result, believes that it will be another thrilling game.

“I think it’s going to be a fiery one,” he told reporters. “The way we’ve approached it, with the boys who played in the (Super Rugby) final not going to Argentina, and the South Africans sending some of their team straight here, there are going to be some fresh bodies.

“No doubt there is going to be plenty of energy and they won here last time in Wellington and obviously we want to be winning every time we play, so I guess it will be a big one. We’ll have to wait and see.”

The lock spent two months on the sidelines during the Super Rugby season due to a wrist injury but looked back to his best in the All Blacks’ clash with Argentina.

Retallick showed impressive awareness and pace to intercept a stray pass and touch down for what proved to be the decisive try.

He added: “I was pretty happy there was no-one there to be honest. I looked back with about five metres to go and there wasn’t anyone too close.

“I am a little bit leaner right now than the last couple of years. That’s solely come from my wrist injury where I couldn’t really do upper body weights and I was just running for two months.

“I did manage to drop a couple of kgs in that time. I can run around and feel a lot lighter and faster, so I’m pretty happy with where it is at the moment.”