Graham Henry loved the analogy. That the All Blacks are no longer the hunted but the hunter. That rugby’s international landscape has changed. The  Springboks  roll into Auckland today as the beast with the target on its back.

The Boks are a mature, seasoned, hardened group.

It’s new territory for the All Blacks. Underdogs. Hunters. They’re the ones with the ground to make up on an outfit that’s proven, predatory and primed to make an emphatic pre-Rugby World Cup statement.

The IRB rankings say the All Blacks are the best in the world, but Henry disregards the numbers spat out by the computer in Dublin. In the only assessment that counts – the one produced by gut instinct – the All Blacks coach knows too well that his men have ceded the upper ground to their arch rival.

Which makes the next fortnight as interesting as it gets. As the All Blacks and Springboks go at it in Auckland and Wellington over successive Saturdays, all sorts of repercussions will swirl around the results, including the the world cup factor.

The South Africans will arrive having won their last two tests in New Zealand and knowing what another victory, or two, on Kiwi soil would mean for next year’s tournament.

And if it’s at Eden Park, even better. To knock the Blacks over at their fortress, where a semifinal and the final will be played, where they haven’t lost since 1994, where they’re unbeaten in 21 tests, would be about as serious a statement as you can make.

It’s one they’re hell-bent on making.

That’s the thing about these Boks. They’re a mature, seasoned, hardened group. They understand the importance of pivotal moments. And they recognise this is one of them.

Last year the Springboks flat out embarrassed the All Blacks as they swept them in the Tri Nations, making them look like Keystone Kops in Bloemfontein and Durban, then humbling them in Hamilton.

This veteran-laden group, led superbly by John Smit and his able lieutenants Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger and Jaque Fourie, will be only too aware of the sort of disarray that can be inflicted upon their greatest rivals.

They’re highly capable of it, too. This is a Boks squad missing a key cog or two – halfback Fourie du Preez the most telling – but it’s still an awesome group without obvious weaknesses.

Skipper Smit shifts back to No2 to fill the hole left by Bismarck du Plessis, the emerging Francois Louw comes in on the flank for Richie McCaw’s 2009 nemesis Heinrich Brussow, and Ricky Januarie deputises at halfback – business as usual.

Big and strong at set piece and in the loose, with backs who chase kicks like their lives depend on it, a No10 with the deadliest boot in the game and a well-versed game plan, sound defence and unerring belief, the Boks are on top of their game.

What of their, er, colourful coach Peter de Villiers? The theory goes they win in spite of, not because of, him. Whatever. The formula is working.

Henry calls it “stimulating” to be playing “the best team in the world”. But there are no subtleties or subterfuges about the Boks blueprint. It’s brutal, direct, and last year reduced the All Blacks to a rabble. The hunters know exactly how dangerous an animal lies in their sights.