The All Blacks have won everything put in front of them in South Africa so far, and none of it counts from Saturday. The first test of the tour is at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, kicking off at 5.10pm local time, which is 3.10am on Sunday in New Zealand. English referee Matthew Carley has the whistle.
Three weeks of provincial rugby have gone the tourists’ way in a manner nobody quite expected. The All Blacks beat the Stormers 38-21 in Cape Town, put 54 unanswered points on the Sharks in Durban and then scored eight tries against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld to win 50-19. Those are three of the strongest URC clubs in the country, and none of them got within 20 points.
What that record means for a test match is the argument of the week. South African franchises are missing their Springboks, so the sides the All Blacks have faced were nothing like the one waiting at Ellis Park. The Springboks have also spent 2026 scoring heavily. They put 80 points on the Barbarians to open the year, then passed 40 against England, Scotland and Wales, and most recently beat Argentina 17-10.
All Blacks defence coach Tana Umaga has spent the build-up warning his players not to let the size of the South African pack pull their eyes away from what happens behind it. “Don’t give them entries into the area that they want to get to, that promotes their strengths,” Umaga said. He described a Springboks side that has quietly become dangerous with ball in hand. “They’ve added some really soft touches to their game, with the skill set they have in the backs. Once you concentrate on what’s coming to you up front, they look for space out wide.”
Umaga also made the point that Rassie Erasmus rarely does the expected thing. “With the coaching staff that they have in their group, we’ve got to be ready for anything,” he told RugbyPass.
Both coaches have kept their teams hidden longer than usual. Dave Rennie names his side on Thursday night New Zealand time. Erasmus, who normally reveals his matchday 23 on a Monday or Tuesday, has also pushed his announcement out to Thursday, as Planet Rugby reported.
Rennie has a handful of calls to make. Halfback Cam Roigard has come through a calf problem and is expected to play. Wing Will Jordan is likely to be available after a back complaint. Fullback Damian McKenzie, who rolled an ankle, has been tracking in the right direction through the week. The one genuine doubt is halfback Cortez Ratima, who has a knee ligament injury that Rennie said would be assessed over 48 hours. Wing Caleb Clarke has already flown home, the third injury forced departure of the tour.
Ardie Savea returns as captain for the tests after sitting out the provincial matches, which Codie Taylor led. Erasmus has his own captaincy question, with Siya Kolisi’s fitness unclear and Pieter-Steph du Toit the likely stand-in if he does not make it. Damian de Allende is in line for his 100th cap somewhere in the series.
The week has not been entirely about selection. Springboks assistant coach Felix Jones raised concerns about All Blacks technique at the breakdown, saying feedback from the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls described tucked shoulders and a reversed, non-wrapping arm action, and defenders pulling at legs during mauls. “We want to make sure that brutality or physicality stays within the laws,” Jones said, in comments reported by 1News. It came a day after Erasmus and South African referee adviser Jaco Peyper set out how the 30-second limits at scrums and lineouts would be enforced.
Rennie’s answer to that one was to point at the tape. “One of the lineouts against the Sharks took 50 seconds to set. We found the Bulls had a much more positive mindset – there was a lot more ball in play,” he said. He added that the match officials had already circulated their priorities. “They sent out an email last week around the four key areas and one of them was the time wasting.”
None of this is new for a series between these two. What is new is the shape of the tour around it. This is the first full All Blacks tour of South Africa since 1996, with provincial fixtures sitting between tests rather than a short series flown in and out of. A match against the Lions at Ellis Park on 25 August falls between the first and second tests. The second test is at DHL Stadium in Cape Town on 29 August, the third at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on 5 September, and the fourth at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on 12 September, the first time the fixture has been played in the United States. World Rugby and both unions are using that match to build interest in the sport before the men’s Rugby World Cup goes to America in 2031.
The 1996 tour is the reason this one carries the weight it does. Sean Fitzpatrick’s side won that series 2-1, the first and still the only time New Zealand has won a series in South Africa, after failed attempts in 1928, 1949, 1960, 1970 and 1976. The second test at Loftus, won 33-26, is still argued over as one of the best matches ever played. The teams who did it were nicknamed the Incomparables, and every All Blacks squad that has gone north since has been measured against them.
Thirty years on, the fixture has been rebuilt as a four-yearly event, with New Zealand hosting the return tour in 2030. The Rugby Championship was shifted to a two-yearly cycle to make room for it. That means the four Saturdays ahead are the only chance this group of players gets to do what Fitzpatrick’s team did, and it starts at a ground that has been kind to South Africa more often than not. The All Blacks have won six of the tests played at Ellis Park against the Springboks and lost most of the rest, and their last win there was 35-23 in 2022.
Both squads are named on Thursday. Full fixtures and results are on the All Blacks tour page, and RNZ Sport is covering the build-up.
Do the provincial results tell us anything at all about Saturday, or is a fully loaded Springboks side a completely different problem? Leave a comment below and let us know.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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