New Zealand hooker Andrew Hore is confident the All Blacks will show further improvement in their set-piece when they take on South Africa in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Hore made a shaky start against Australia in his first game back from a rib injury with two overthrows in the early line-outs, but was more impressive in his general play as the pack gradually took control to grind out a 22-16 win in their Tri-Nations opener.
‘At the start I overthrew a couple and it was back on me to throw a few and get my confidence back up,’ he said.
‘You have to play games to get used to dumping it and starting again. When we backed our systems and what we were doing it came good.’
Keven Mealamu replaced Hore early in the second half and that also helped to steady things, but the 30-year-old Hurricanes rake is backing himself to continue the upward trend against the Springboks.
‘Kevvy came on and I thought the line-outs in the second half were pretty good,’ Hore continued.
‘It finished off on a reasonable note ... and hopefully we can carry on from where we finished off.’
Hore also believes the pack are on the right track with their scrummaging work after indifferent displays against France and Italy.
‘It's a work in progress. We are building away. We are slowly getting up to where we were,’ he told Radio Sport.
‘We'll keep working on that and hopefully we can get better every game and be pretty good by the end of it.’
Despite the improvement shown against the Wallabies, Hore knows the Boks scrum will be a different proposition all together.
Captain John Smit has made a successful switch to tighthead prop to make way for Bismarck Du Plessis at hooker, and loosehead Tendai Mtawarira was a star in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions when he destroyed opposite Phil Vickery.
‘It's always been pretty tough up front,’ conceded Hore. ‘Probably a good thing about their front row is they have played all the Super 14 together so they will know each other's strengths and how they can do stuff on different angles which should mean quite a tough test on Saturday.
‘There are a lot of players in the All Blacks who have had an indifferent build-up to Test matches compared to what they are used to with injuries and stuff.
‘But everyone is slowly getting back on the bike and we are slowly coming right.
‘We went not too bad against Australia and hopefully we can take another couple of steps up and mix it with these big boys on Saturday.’
Tomorrow's game will undoubtedly be a bruising, physical encounter and Hore knows the All Blacks will need to fight fire with fire in the forward exchanges if they are to earn victory on the high veldt.
‘They are strong, well built and passionate people and they get the crowds behind them over here,’ he said.
‘They don't mind smashing people up and they've been doing it for years.
‘They are big men so they can do it and we have just got to try and front up, take what they chuck at us and throw a few grenades back at them I suppose.’
