"Richie is one of the all-time best players, we respect him for that but we're just going to focus on what we want to do. I hope it goes well for him," Springbok forwards coach Johan van Graan told reporters.
"This is a Springboks versus All Blacks test and they have 15 world class players in their team. I think Sam Cane and Liam Messam played brilliantly in Auckland (when New Zealand beat South Africa on September 14), and even though Richie McCaw is back and is captain again, it won't influence us."
New Zealand coach Steve Hansen confirmed on Monday that McCaw was over the knee injury that kept him out of the last two tournament victories against Springboks and Argentina and would start on Saturday.
Van Graan said the Springboks had shown much improvement in breakdown play, a major factor in seven wins in eight tests this year.
"You've got to divide the breakdown into attack and defence. I think defensively we managed to win eight turnovers at the breakdown at Eden Park, which was a huge plus for us.
"If you look at the weekend (against Australia), when guys like (prop) Gurthro (Steenkamp) and (centre) Jean (De Villiers) start to steal ball, that is where you want to be. We've made a change in mentality that all 23 players must be able to make the right decision at the breakdown," Van Graan added.
The coach was particularly pleased with the breakdown statistics against Australia but admitted that New Zealand packed much more of a punch in that area.
"On attack, we had 100 breakdowns on the dot on our ball this past weekend," he said. "We managed to win 96 of those, which is quite good. But still, we want 100 percent.
"But our aim is always to focus on ourselves and when the whistle goes on Saturday, we'll have to be at our best both on attack and defence," he added.
(Reporting by Nick Said in Cape Town; editing by Kieran Barry)
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