Victor Matfield calls for altitude slickness

The lock believes the thinner air and drier climate will suit the Springboks as they will use a mixture of long, tactical kicks and slick passes to bring Bryan Habana and JP Pieterson into the game.

Both wings had little to do in Durban as the hosts played their way into form after a long break.

Matfield said: "There are five Bulls in the team and we will benefit from the good vibe created by the Super 14 win at Loftus Versfeld, where altitude will be a factor.

"Hopefully, we can use this to our advantage. We couldn't wait to get back to Pretoria and the priority is to play a great match in front of those fans.

"It's a different game in Pretoria compared to the humid conditions of Durban. You are able to play with more ball in hand because it's dry and the ball travels much further through the air because of altitude.

"Our kicking game needs to be spot on. I hope we have more gears to go through tomorrow because the Lions will be much better."

Matfield is arguably the best line-out forward in the world. Besides winning quality ball, he is also the focal point for the driving play that exposed weaknesses in the Lions pack and allowed the Boks to score a try last week.

The maul is back as a weapon, thanks to the end of the law which allowed defenders to pull it down, and the Lions have not adapted as quickly as the Boks.

"We are proud of our driving play in the maul," said Matfield. "Thanks to the live sessions against the Emerging Springboks, we were able to use it in the First Test to good effect and produced a try from a drive off a line-out for Heinrich Brussow.

"Our scrum was very good in the First Test and it was an area where everyone was writing us off before the match.

"We have very proud guys in that front row who showed what they can do and now we are going to be even better."