'Hairs on the back of my neck still stand up': McCaw on defending All Blacks' 'home'

The All Blacks have played fifty Tests at Eden Park since they last lost there, a streak now stretching thirty-one years.

Ahead of the ninety-fourth Test at the ground, players who have been part of that record described it less as pressure than as inheritance. Richie McCaw said the hairs on the back of his neck still stand up walking out there, a reaction he never lost across a long career.

The numbers are stark: eighty wins, three draws and ten losses across the ground's Test history, with South Africa's last victory in Auckland dating to 1937 and their last visit to Eden Park a 29-15 defeat in 2013.

Players spoken to for the piece were consistent that the streak is not something you play for. It is something you try not to think about, which is its own kind of burden on a night when a record that predates most of the squad is on the line.