Tele’a and Reece part of a revamped back three in All Blacks XV

Having recently lacked late-match maturity and menace, All Blacks coach Scott Robertson addressed the shortfall by naming Rugby World Cup winners Beauden Barrett and TJ Perenara on the bench for Saturday's Rugby Championship clash against the Springboks at Cape Town Stadium.

The pair, who have 214 caps between them and started at fullback and scrumhalf respectively last week at Ellis Park, are out of a revamped starting team as the All Blacks seek to keep their Rugby Championship hopes alive.

Mark Tele'a and Sevu Reece join Will Jordan who shifts to fullback in the back three, but Robertson was also forced into a change in the pack with Ethan Blackadder sidelined with a tight hamstring allowing the youngest player in the squad Wallace Sititi to start.

Cortez Ratima is also in the run-on team, with Perenara making up part of the cavalry on the bench.

Tele'a comes into the starting team at the expense of Caleb Clarke, who was also ruled out with a back injury.

Bok head coach Rassie Erasmus noted the Boks will be dealing with slippery customers on the wing on Saturday.

“Sevu was the first guy I saw goose step Cheslin [Kolbe]. He is dangerous. Tele'a is physical, he's dangerous, his legs are pumping all the time. He picks and goes from the middle of a ruck. Jerry [Flannery, Bok assistant coach] has worked hard for the guys to know individuals,” he said.

Erasmus called the All Blacks a magnificent team and they were unlucky to go down at Ellis Park.

“For them to come here is like us going to Auckland — it's daunting. The moment you think you have them, you don't have them. They have a lot to offer. They are a difficult team to coach against and play against.”

He also noted the All Blacks met the Boks head-on at the set pieces last weekend and it came as little surprise the tourists' starting front row that did duty and stood their ground at Ellis Park again got the thumbs up.

Former captain Sam Cane, who was the subject of much debate for his role in the injury Bok captain Siya Kolisi suffered last weekend, also got the nod, while the reintroduction of fit again Dalton Papali'i did not materialise.

Erasmus said the Boks opted not to cite Cane for the tackle that left Kolisi with a broken nose. “I don't think he did that on purpose. I think maybe a yellow card might have been appropriate, or a penalty.

“If the citing commissioner picked it up and thought it met the red card threshold, then they investigate. That did not meet the threshold and he came to apologise.”

Erasmus said he knows Cane better than the other All Blacks, having visited him in hospital after the player suffered a neck fracture at Ellis Park in 2018.

“I visited him on the Monday morning after New Zealand flew back. I had a jaw break twice in Sydney and I know how lonely it gets in a foreign country when you don't know how the medical aid works or how good the doctors are. We know each other a bit closer than the other All Blacks.

“The poor guy got red-carded in the World Cup final and it wouldn't have been nice to be red-carded again.”

All Blacks to play the Springboks

Will Jordan; Sevu Reece, Rieko Ioane, Jordie Barrett, Mark Tele'a; Damian McKenzie, Cortez Ratima; Ardie Savea, Sam Cane, Wallace Sititi; Tupou Vaa'i, Scott Barrett (captain); Tyrel Lomax, Codie Taylor, Tamaiti Williams.

Substitutes: Asafo Aumua, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Fletcher Newell, Sam Darry, Luke Jacobson; TJ Perenara, Anton Lienert-Brown, Beauden Barrett.