The Springboks head to New Zealand hoping to conquer one of the greatest challenges in rugby, writes JON CARDINELLI.
Earlier this season, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was asked whether the match between South Africa and New Zealand in Auckland on 6 September was the most important fixture on the rugby calendar.
It was a leading question and – given the 104-year-old rivalry between the nations as well as the All Blacks’ 50-game unbeaten run at Eden Park – largely rhetorical. Nevertheless, the journalists gathered at the SA Rugby headquarters for the first official Springbok press conference of the Test season leaned in to see whether Erasmus would take the bait.
The double World Cup-winning coach offered a wry smile, before suggesting that the end-of-year fixture against Ireland could be more significant in the context of the group’s eight-year journey.
The Boks have lost four of their last five Tests to Ireland, and overall, South Africa have not won in Dublin since 2012.
Have Ireland become the Boks’ biggest rivals, and could Erasmus’ underlying message be taken to heart?
The results show how Ireland have had the wood over the Boks in recent years, and how South Africa have dominated the All Blacks in the same period.
With regards to the latter rivalry, the Boks have won four games in a row, and claimed the Freedom Cup last year after securing back-to-back victories in South Africa.
However, it has been two years since the Boks last played a match in New Zealand, and wins in the Land of the Long White Cloud have been tough to come by over the course of the professional era.
When Erasmus’ side beat the All Blacks 36–34 in Wellington back in 2018, they became only the fourth South African team to win a Test in New Zealand since 1996. Erasmus will be all too aware of that record, and the fact nobody has managed to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park since 1994.
Despite his comments to the contrary – which could, of course, be part of a strategy to unsettle the All Blacks – the Bok coach knows that the Tests in Auckland and Wellington this month will shape the rivalry for years to come.
After winning the 2023 World Cup in France, the Boks cracked on to win 11 out of 13 Tests in 2024.
The matches against Italy and Georgia this past July provided Erasmus with an opportunity to experiment, and add further wins to the team’s already impressive tally.
The Boks went into the 2025 Rugby Championship determined to become the first South African side in history to successfully defend the southern hemisphere title.
The Boks have won this tournament five times over the past 29 years, but never back-to-back.
The odds are stacked against them, when you consider the 2025 schedule and the team’s overall record in New Zealand.
After playing Australia twice at home, the Boks will face the All Blacks in back-to-back Tests in New Zealand. Thereafter, they will host Argentina in Durban, before tackling the Pumas in a historic clash at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.
The Boks will fancy their chances of winning the second Test of the Freedom Cup series, given their success in Wellington in recent years.
Apart from that monumental win in 2018, Erasmus’ side held the All Blacks to a 16–16 draw at the Cake Tin in 2019, a result that paved the way for a Rugby Championship title.
Few will be looking past the seriesopener at Eden Park, though. While the All Blacks have lost at home to the Boks, Ireland and even Argentina over the past few seasons, their formidable record at the Auckland fortress has remained intact.
It has been 31 years and 50 games since they lost at this venue, with France prevailing 23-20 on that occasion.
The pressure is mounting on coach Scott Robertson after the All Blacks’ underwhelming showing in 2024.
While the media and public in New Zealand remain hopeful of a turnaround in 2025 – and to be fair, the change to the schedule does improve the chances of the All Blacks reclaiming the Rugby Championship and Freedom Cup trophies – there will be a national outcry if the Eden Park streak comes to an end.
The Boks will not want for motivation. Apart from becoming the first team to win at this venue in the professional era, they could end a longer streak that stretches all the way back to 1937.
It has been 88 years since a Bok team beat the All Blacks at Eden Park. That touring party was captained by Philip J. Nel and nicknamed “The Invincibles” after they became the first side to win a series in New Zealand.
Incidentally, no South African side has managed to win back-to-back matches in New Zealand since then, or claim a series victory in that country.
All of the above highlights the enormity of the task. Speak to any player or coach, past and present, and they will tell you that a result against the All Blacks matters more than any other.
The Boks who have won in New Zealand are part of an elite club, and those who have won a series there are rarer still.
A series win for the Boks in New Zealand this month would cast a new light on the rivalry.
Between 2010 and 2017, the All Blacks won 15 out of 17 Tests against the Boks. From 2018 onwards, it has been a lot closer, while the results of the past two seasons suggest that the Boks are edging ahead.
Since losing 35–20 at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland in the 2023 Rugby Championship, the Boks have gone on to win four matches in a row. That run includes the record 35–7 victory in London in 2023, the 12–11 triumph in the World Cup final staged in Paris, and last year’s Freedom Cup victories in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
If Erasmus’ Boks stretch that streak to six victories later this year, they will equal South Africa’s all-time winning run against New Zealand.
The Invincibles won back-to-back Tests in 1937, before the rivalry and indeed all sport was paused during World War 2.
When it resumed in 1949, the Boks beat New Zealand 4–0 in the series staged in South Africa.
Could the current crop of Boks go one or two better than those teams from 1937 and 1949, and claim seven or eight wins on the bounce? While it is too early to make such a prediction, it is, however, worth noting that the inaugural “Greatest Rivalry” series involving the Boks and All Blacks – a quadrennial tour that includes midweek fixtures and a three-Test series – will be held in South Africa next year.
Just as the All Blacks will start the 2025 Freedom Cup matches in New Zealand as favourites, the Boks will go into the 2026 Tests as the frontrunners.
So much depends on the result at Eden Park this month. The All Blacks may extend their record at the venue, and claw their way back into the rivalry.
But if the Boks succeed, they will earn a special place in history and set South African rugby on a new course.
