Emotion will not be in short supply when the Springboks face the All Blacks in their Tri-Nations rugby test in Cape Town on Saturday.

In addition to the traditional edge of a showdown between the fierce rivals, the Newlands crowd will see one of their own Western Province products, fullback Percy Montgomery, become the first player in Springboks history to reach 100 caps.

For coach Peter de Villiers, it was fitting that the honour should fall to Montgomery.

"I don't think it could happen to a greater rugby player in our history than Percy," he said.

De Villiers jokingly went on to compare the feat to former president Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday this year.

But there was no doubting his respect for a player he first coached more than a decade ago and whom he praised for his professionalism and unselfishness.

"What makes him so extraordinary is the fact that he is prepared to share his knowledge to everybody in the side," de Villiers said.

"He doesn't keep anything to himself. I'm blessed to work with people like him and this week is going to be huge for him."

After gaining his 98th cap in the 30-28 win over the All Blacks in Dunedin a month ago, Montgomery was not selected for the Springboks' next Test, a defeat to Australia in Perth.

Instead, he got to 99 off the bench in the 63-9 win over Argentina in Johannesburg last weekend, a match marking Mandela's 90th birthday.

Some in the South African media see an element of planning in all this to ensure Montgomery would bring up his century in front of his home fans.

But de Villiers said Montgomery's selection in the starting 15 this week ahead of Conrad Jantjes was because he had shown at Carisbrook that he was the man for the job against New Zealand.

Noted for both his laid-back flair and a habit of occasionally committing basic errors, Montgomery made his Test debut against the British Lions in 1997 and has faced the All Blacks 18 times.

His Test career stalled in 2002 when he went to play for Welsh club Newport. At the time, South Africa selected only domestically-based players for Test duty.

When Jake White became national coach in 2004, one of his first moves was to lure Montgomery back into the Springboks fold.

Montgomery, 34, has gone on to become South Africa's most prolific Test points scorer, with 887, including 25 tries.

He was staying pretty low-key about the next record coming up.

Yes, running out at Newlands for his 100th cap would obviously be special, and having the All Blacks as opponents would be even more so, but the match was more important than the milestone, he said.

"To be honest, I try not to talk too much about it," he said.

"A few of the guys are chipping me about it, but I think everyone knows the focus of why we're here."

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