Springbok centre Braam van Straaten believes his team can beat the All Blacks in Auckland on Saturday, providing they get their discipline sorted out.

The South Africans have put in two great performances recently in beating the Wallabies in Pretoria and drawing with them in Perth, although the latter result could easily have been another win was it not for the yellow cards.

Flyhalf Butch James got his marching orders for a dangerous tackle on George Smith, while captain Bob Skinstad spent time in the sin-bin for repeated infringements at the breakdowns.

However, if the referee keeps his cards in his pocket on Saturday, Van Straaten believes they can win. "If we can keep all 15 on for 80 minutes and play with the intensity we want to we might put one on the All Blacks," he told nzoom.

"The people are really backing the Boks because we beat the Wallabies in South Africa and we had a good game against them in Perth, it was just bad that we couldn't keep all 15 players on the field."

The Stormers star also expressed his disbelieve at Kiwi captain Anton Oliver's decision not to go for goal after the fulltime siren had already sounded in their 23-15 loss to the Australians.

A successful penalty would have earned them a bonus point for finishing within seven, but instead he opted to run it, a move which might cost them dearly in the final analysis.

"The Tri-Nations is one of the best competitions in the world," he says. "It was a big mistake on his behalf, I saw Andrew Mehrtens try to get the ball in hand and get the points on the board to get the bonus point.

"In this competition it is so close, you can win or lose just by that one bonus point and I think it was the wrong decision."