It will be just the second time these old rivals go at it at Twickenham and despite the Test being labelled as a warm-up match, it certainly will not be a friendly contest.

The last time the two teams faced each other was in July when the All Blacks beat the Springboks 35-20 at the Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland during round two of the Rugby Championship.

In their only previous Test at Twickenham the All Blacks edged the Springboks 20-18 in the semi-finals of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The All Black captain, Sam Cane, said it will be special to face the Springboks at the Home of English rugby.

“It's really important to us and there has been no chat other than this week to be honest,” said Cane.

“It's another opportunity to put on the black jersey and I think it's going to be a pretty special and unique occasion to play against the Springboks at Twickenham.

“It's pretty exciting, especially considering that the starting group hasn't played together in a wee while, so hopefully we can get back out there and put up one that we can be proud of.

“That's exciting for us.”

Friday night’s big Test in London kicks off at 20:30.

Springboks - 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff.

Replacements - 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Jean Kleyn, 20 RG Snyman, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Willie le Roux.

All Blacks - 15 Beauden Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Mark Telea, 10 Richie Mo'unga, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Sam Cane (captain), 6 Luke Jacobson, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Sam Whitelock, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Ethan de Groot.

Replacements - 16 Samisoni Taukei'aho, 17 Tamaiti Williams, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Tupou Va'ai, 21 Dalton Papali'i, 22 Cam Roigard, 23 Anton Lienert-Brown.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport