There are two opportunities for the All Blacks and Springboks to square off at next year’s Rugby World Cup in France.
Should one team top their pool and the other finish second – with Ireland and France making up the numbers – they will square off at the quarter-final stages of the tournament. If that outcome doesn’t eventuate, however, then the grand final will be the only chance the two rivals have for going hammer and tongs at the showpiece tournament.
France and Ireland sit at the pinnacle of the world game at present – that’s not up for debate. But is it South Africa or New Zealand who sits immediately behind them in the pecking order at present?
While the Springboks were able to take advantage of the favourable draw they were dealt at the 2019 Rugby World Cup and were ultimately crowned worthy winners, the All Blacks faltered at the semi-final stages of the competition.
The years since have not necessarily been kind to either of the two Southern Hemisphere superpowers.
The Springboks were entirely absent from the 2020 Test calendar, ceding one year of potentially crucial development in favour of protecting themselves from the possible effects of Covid. The All Blacks, on the other hand, undertook a six-match season that saw them drop matches to both the Wallabies and Pumas – the latter a first-ever defeat at the hands of the Argentinians.
When South Africa and New Zealand squared off on neutral ground a year later, few knew what to expect from the rival nations and there was a palpable tension heading into the first of their two matches in Australia.
The Springboks has just dropped back-to-matches to the Wallabies while the All Blacks had scored two comfortable wins over the Pumas – yet it was generally accepted that form would be thrown out the window for what would be the 100th match between the two sides.
A close match ensued – one which was only decided in the final minutes of the game when Jordie Barrett kicked a long-range penalty to wrestle the lead back for the men in black after they’d held it for much of the game. The closeness of the match aside, however, it was hardly a game that would have enticed neutrals to take note of the sport, with the Springboks resorting to a box-kick-heavy strategy that prevented any sort of thrills from really taking over.
That happened the following week, however, when South Africa opted to play with a bit more flair and one of the sporting highlights of the year unfurled, with the Springboks eventually claiming a hard-fought 31-29 victory.