New Zealand have taken note of the brain South Africa have added to their traditionally brawny approach this season.

"The guys are pretty sore after every game against South Africa," fullback Leon MacDonald said at an All Black training session in Durban on Monday.

"The Boks play with a lot of passion and they have the support of their country behind them, so they get stuck in.

"They're strong men and they're mixing that strength with an intelligent game now.

"That makes them pretty intimidating . . . a pretty powerful team."

Springbok coach Jake White has earned credit for improving the South Africans' skills and technical abilities.

His team bounced back from a 30-12 drubbing by Australia in the first match of the Nelson Mandela Challenge in Sydney last month to beat the Wallabies 33-20 in the second leg in Johannesburg.

The Springboks edged Australia 22-16 in the first match of the Tri-Nations series in Pretoria on Saturday and John Smit's team will take on New Zealand in the second game of the Southern Hemisphere championship in Cape Town on Saturday.

MacDonald is expected a challenging match against New Zealand's traditional rugby enemy.

"We can't afford to make any mistakes," he said.

"You've got (fullback Percy) Montgomery kicking goals all over the show and plenty of pace out wide to score tries.

"So we've got to be right on our game."

The All Blacks were last in action on July 9th, when they wrapped up a convincing 3-0 series win over the British and Irish Lions.

"We had a good break and the guys are fresh and excited about getting back on the rugby field again," MacDonald said.

"But there's nothing like playing in a game and the guys are really excited about pulling on the black jersey and getting stuck in because it's going to be a really good series.

"The standard is good and I think it's going to be a step up from the Lions series.

"Both the Australian and the South African teams look pretty strong."

South Africa's lineout has been in dominant form with stalwart lock Victor Matfield making life difficult for opponents.

"He (Matfield) is a major weapon for their lineout," New Zealand lock James Ryan said. "I've watched him for a number of years since I was a youngster. I've always thought he was a great lineout forward and he's a man we'll be watching."

Ryan said the New Zealanders would tailor their lineout to negate the rangy Springboks.

"It's a horses-for-courses thing. We have to work our lineout to best suit our opposition," he said.

Meanwhile, White said a victory over the All Blacks at Newlands on Saturday would be similar to winning the Rugby World Cup.

"If we beat the All Blacks on Saturday it must come close to the achievement of winning a World Cup," White said.

"To beat Australia on two consecutive weekends and then beat the All Blacks the next Saturday would be special and I don't think too many sides can get that right," White said by way of explaining his comment.

"One of the things we must be aware of is that if you want to win the World Cup you are going to have to play three big Saturdays in a row.

"We have England in our pool in 2007 and if we beat them we could have to play a quarter-final, semi-final and final in consecutive weeks.

"It could happen that we end up playing, say, France in the quarters, Australia in the semis and New Zealand in the final, or whoever. To win the tournament you will have to win those three weekends in a row.

"Winning the World Cup is massive and you can't take that away from anybody but for us, this weekend is part of the plan and something you can use when preparing for the World Cup."

White was not sure who would be better prepared for the Tri-Nations match, the weary but confident Springboks or the rested but match-shy All Blacks.

"I'll tell you on Saturday afternoon if it was an advantage to play two weekends in a row before this match or not," White said with a smile.