All Blacks forward admits Springboks have been 'hard' to handle

Although New Zealand claimed a victory in the first game, South Africa were still dominant in most of the fundamentals with mistakes and the tourists' defensive resilience helping Dave Rennie's men to a 33-16 triumph.

In the subsequent two weeks, however, the Boks reduced those errors and managed to secure successive wins to go 2-1 up in the four-Test series.

Both teams are now in Baltimore ahead of the finale where the All Blacks will have to improve up front if they are to level matters.

Tuipulotu has been brought into the engine room to provide extra physicality in an attempt to gain parity with their opponents up front.

"They're the best team in the world for a reason, they've been putting us under pressure in a lot of those areas. Results aside, it has been hard for us but it's the nature of the beast," he told reporters.

"That's part of the challenge and tests where you are. We're not going to dwell on them being the best and trying to put a negative spin on it, but every week we come in and try and do our best to be positive, and try and play the best footy we can.

"At the end of the day, if they're the better team they're going to be the better team but I think we're pretty close."

The All Blacks have played some wonderful rugby at times over the last few games and have always looked dangerous with ball in hand, but they have faltered up front.

And asked what New Zealand can learn from South Africa, Tuipulotu responded: "The obvious is around the set-piece, they've got some set-piece dominance at the moment and we've struggled to negate that.

"There are a few plans in place, such as lineout 'D' and scrum, we don't want them getting an upper hand again."

It has been a fierce contest on the field but that has not spilled off it. Tuipulotu also stated they have managed to share a beer or two with the Boks, even if the nature of the modern professional game has prevented the two teams from meeting up on more occasions.

"There's always have massive respect between the two nations. I feel they get the best out of us and we get the best out of them," Tuipulotu added.

"We heard stories around previous tours where they actually spent some time with the opposition, have some beers and got to know each other that way.

"I suppose it's very different this way. High performance is pretty cut-throat and in this performance era you can't really do that.

"There are other ways around it, having a quick beer in the changing shed and getting to know them that way. A few of us pop in whenever we can and see the guys we know."