Were the Springboks pulling their punches with All Blacks, Eden Park on the horizon?

In 2018 and 2019, it was clear that Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks prioritised their away matches against the All Blacks.

In 2018, the Boks won their opening match against Argentina at home before being hammered by Los Pumas away in Mendoza. A week later, the South Africans lost to the Wallabies in Brisbane, and people were already starting to speculate about Erasmus’ future — seven games in, with three wins and four defeats to his name.

Heading into their next match against the All Blacks in Wellington, Erasmus said: "If we do really bad here, then I will probably not be in the seat for the next couple of matches and somebody else will probably be there."

At the time, as journalists, we took it at face value. It genuinely seemed as though he was completely stressed and already worried about his job. It was reported as such, with the feeling that Erasmus may have underestimated the size of the job ahead of him.

But the Springboks produced one of the great performances by an opposition rugby team on New Zealand soil, coming out on top by playing a complete brand of rugby. Erasmus ended up keeping his job, and a year later, the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Having covered the Boks and Erasmus over the last seven years, and knowing to expect the unexpected when it comes to the Bok coach, I asked myself if he was really going to resign or get fired if they had lost to the All Blacks. Probably not.

But it’s interesting, looking back now, that they threw all their eggs in that basket for that match — and indeed the following year’s clash against the All Blacks, which ended in a dramatic draw in the New Zealand capital.

For Erasmus, those matches were about laying down a marker for the World Cup in Japan. It was about getting that belief that they could compete with and beat the best in the world — which, of course, were the All Blacks.

Everything leading up to that match was about the theatre that Erasmus creates, knowingly or unknowingly.

In the lead-up to the Boks’ game against the All Blacks in 2018, they were flat and uninspiring. They didn’t reveal much about how they were going to play or what tricks they were going to come with.

Fast forward seven years, and there are a lot of similarities in how the Boks have gone about their approach at the start of this year’s Rugby Championship, ahead of a really big match against the All Blacks at Eden Park.

Besides the spectacular 20 minutes of rugby against the Wallabies at Ellis Park, the Boks haven’t really given us a glimpse of what to expect at Eden Park. They have hardly mauled over the last two weeks, with their first attempt from a lineout in Cape Town coming in the 55th minute.

The backline shape has been pretty standard, with no real moves out the back — just passing from side to side. Essentially, there was only one midfield lineout during the two matches, with the Boks doing one for what looked like amusement at Ellis Park.

Many people would agree that the Wallabies played some great rugby and that they have improved out of sight since the last World Cup. But we must also agree that the Boks seemed to be stuck in third gear, following two uninspiring performances.

Or maybe they are just playing within themselves ahead of the Springboks’ biggest clash between now and the World Cup — the cards close to the chest, as Erasmus looks to make another big statement in New Zealand.

History is certainly on the line, as the All Blacks haven’t lost at Eden Park since 1994. Everyone knows what’s at stake — none more so than Erasmus.

Well, we have under two weeks before we find out if the Springboks are going to throw their biggest punches against the All Blacks to make history at Eden Park.