All Blacks learnt from Wellington Loss - Ryan Crotty

All Black centre Ryan Crotty hopes that his side has learned their lesson from last month's home defeat by South Africa as they seek to re-establish their Rugby Championship dominance over the Springboks in Pretoria this weekend.

"There were a few learnings for us out there. We were feeling good when we were 14 points up and we let them back in," Crotty said of the shock 36-34 loss in Wellington.

"They created a bit of pressure but we let them back into the game. We could have executed better down the stretch.

"We always believed we were going to get it done but we didn't and so that hurts."

The veteran centre suggested that New Zealand's lines of communication had broken down at times against the Springboks in Wellington.

"As a leadership group, we learnt just how important our communication is out there (on the field) so that we can make good decisions in terms of our game plan," he told a news conference.

Crotty admitted the result was the first thing that hurt before they looked at the reasons behind it.

"You could walk around the changing room and see the hurt and see how disappointed the team was."

QUICK STAT: The All Blacks have won the last four encounters between the two sides at Loftus Versfeld with the Springboks only victory over New Zealand at the stadium coming in 1970.

Tighthead prop Owen Franks said there was still plenty to play for against South Africa even with the title in the bag.

"You can't beat a test in Pretoria, hopefully it's a sellout. I haven't played in a sold out stadium there since 2009 against the Bulls and it's an awesome atmosphere," he said.