All Blacks great: Springboks in Joburg a bigger challenge than Eden Park

Australia are preparing to take on the Springboks at Ellis Park in what is considered the “hardest” test in the game, according to former All Blacks back-row Murray Mexted.

The Wallabies begin their Rugby Championship campaign on Saturday when they take on the back-to-back world champions in Johannesburg.

It was always going to be a massive challenge for Joe Schmidt’s men, but it is made even tougher due to the altitude factor.

‘You can’t dismiss it’

“We tend to dismiss the fact it’s at altitude, and you can’t dismiss it. If you walked up a slope in Johannesburg, you would be wanting to stop for a beer halfway up,” Mexted told DSPN with Martin Devlin.

“If you start doing exercise at altitude and you’re not used to it, it’s hard work. Don’t underestimate that, but we all do, sitting watching our televisions.

“We forget about it and we think, ‘they beat us to the breakdown there, there and there, and they scored this try there, there and there because we didn’t have enough numbers in the areas we needed on the field’. Well, it’s because there’s exhaustion.”

The Wallabies will go into the game with confidence after an impressive victory over the British and Irish Lions in the third and final Test of the series.

However, Mexted reckons they couldn’t have asked for a more difficult task to follow up. Although the All Blacks have remained unbeaten at Eden Park since 1994, the 71-year-old sees the Springboks in Joburg as the “biggest challenge” in the game.

“Thank you to the Lions, even though you weren’t good enough and none of you are going to go down in history. Thank you for coming and allowing Australia to work themselves out,” he quipped.

“Now they’ve grown up a bit, they’ve got the biggest challenge in the whole world, the hardest place to play for any team in the world is Johannesburg against the Springboks.

“We’re going to find out if they only grew up because they’re playing in front of their home crowd.”

Mexted certainly can’t see Schmidt’s side overcoming the Boks at Ellis Park in the Rugby Championship but believes that running them close would represent progress.

“For the Wallabies, this is going to be a huge occasion and if they can come through this with credit, which is running them close… [but] I think it’s going to be very hard for the Wallabies to win the first Test at altitude,” he said.

“This would be the biggest step they could ever climb, so we will see a lot about the character of the Wallabies. I’m sure they will be so much better because of the Lions tour.”

Value of Lions tours

Despite Mexted’s snipe at the Lions, the All Blacks great did reserve praise for the famous touring side, who have often provided a stern challenge for the southern hemisphere heavyweights.

“Long may the Lions remain a team that comes down to the southern hemisphere, really puts the pressure on and really tests because not a lot do come to the southern hemisphere and put the pressure on the Springboks and the All Blacks,” he added.

“They (other opponents) will say they’re building and picking a team because they’re building, because they know their top team is not good enough to play away from home and beat the All Blacks in New Zealand or beat the Springboks in South Africa.

“Even Australia in Australia is no easy push as the third Test showed.”

READ MORE: Ex-All Black: This B&I Lions team would have got a ‘bloody hiding’ from Springboks and New Zealand