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| WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - SEPTEMBER 13: Damian Willemse of South Africa celebrates after scoring a try during The Rugby Championship match between New Zealand All Blacks and South Africa Springboks at Sky Stadium on September 13, 2025 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images) |
The Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series shifts into top gear this weekend, with the Springboks hosting the All Blacks at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, in the first of four Tests.
New Zealand have concluded their run-outs against three of the four South African franchises, beating the Stormers, Sharks, and the Bulls over the last two weeks, while the Lions will get their chance against the men in black at the same iconic venue on August 25.
While this marks New Zealand’s first tour of South Africa in 30 years, this fiercest of sporting rivalries is anything but new.
South African toured New Zealand for the first time in 1921, and in the 110 Tests played between them, the All Blacks have won 63, while the Springboks have beaten them 43 times. Four Tests have ended in a draw.
The two iconic sides have won seven of the 10 world cups since the tournament began in 1987, with South Africa lifting the Web Ellis a record four times, while New Zealand have claimed the global top-podium spot on three occasions. Two of those finals have been played between the two teams, with South Africa winning both.
While the All Blacks hold an overall 57 percent success rate over the Springboks, there has been a major shift in the Rassie Erasmus era, with the Boks winning seven of their 11 Tests since the 2019 world cup in Japan.
With so much history between these age-old rivals and more history possibly to be made during this tour, we look at the five most recent results between South Africa and New Zealand.
September 13, 2025: All Blacks 10 Springboks 43, Wellington
South Africa ran in six tries – five of them in the second half – to dismantle the hosts in a shocking one-sided affair at Sky Stadium.
While the Boks dominated territory in the opening 40, they only had a Cheslin Kolbe intercept try to show for it and went into the break trailing 10-7, but they were ruthless after switching sides and kept the All Blacks scoreless in the second half, while they ran in five more tries.
The All Blacks assault in Wellington marked their biggest-ever victory against their rivals and the biggest defeat for the All Blacks on home soil. The result also saw the Boks retain the Freedom Cup while moving back to the top of the World Rugby rankings.
What made the performance even more impressive was how the Boks regrouped after their Eden Park defeat the previous week and the wholesale changes that were made to the squad. Youngsters were given the license to thrill. Add in there the injuries the visitors sustained in the first half in Wellington and how they emptied the bench even before the end of the third quarter, and the result becomes even more remarkable.
It was also the game that should have convinced the rugby world about the Boks’ attacking venom.
September 6, 2025: All Blacks 24- 17 Springboks, Auckland
Going into the clash, the Boks had been winless at Eden Park since 1937, and it remained that way, while New Zealand extended their long-standing record at the venue.
The All Blacks had been unbeaten in 50 Tests (including two draws) at their Eden Park bastion prior to this contest and added one more win to that streak, while the result snapped the Boks’ four-match winning run against them.
Ardie Savea produced a moment worthy of the occasion in his 100th Test for the All Blacks when he won a turnover with one minute to time to negate the spirited Springbok second-half fightback which saw the traveling team come back from 17-3 down at half time.
The result piled the pressure on the Springboks’ Rugby Championship title defence after three rounds.
September 7, 2024: Springboks 18 – 12 All Blacks, Cape Town
The result was a massive one for South Africa for a number of reasons – it marked the first time since 1949 that they beat New Zealand four times on the bounce and their first time winning the Freedom Cup since 2009, while it also all but secured them the Rugby Championship title for the first time since 2019, when the Boks became the first country to win the Sanzaar-governed competition and the world cup in the same year.
The Springboks trailed 3-9 at half-time at Cape Town Stadium and scored the only two tries of the match to claim an 18-12 victory in an absolute thriller of a clash to remain unbeaten in the Rugby Championship after four rounds.
South Africa led by a single point in the 70th minute, but Damian McKenzie flopped a straightforward penalty kick, allowing the Boks to exit after the All Black hooked his kick.
August 31, 2024: Springboks 31 – 27 All Blacks, Johannesburg
Drama lacked not in this blockbuster.
From the airplane flyover during the haka to the fantastic smash-and-grab by the Boks, this match had it all.
South Africa simply had no business winning this game.
The All Blacks had the upper hand in the most of the stats charts and dominated territory and possession, but they conceded more breakdown penalties against a Springbok team that just refused to go down.
And that was the difference, the home side’s relentless determination to keep up the fight.
New Zealand led by 27 points to 17 with just 11 minutes remaining before South Africa orchestrated a fantastic late surge in Round Three of the Rugby Championship.
It was a battle for the books, and while the All Blacks fell victim to some of their errors, the Boks rose above theirs in the Ellis Park epic and showed exactly why, with them, it’s never over till it’s over.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu contributed 16 points in the form of penalties and conversions, while the Bomb Squad injected some potency with Kwagga Smith scoring after a lineout maul was stopped metres from the line before Grant Williams burst over after another maul was stopped in its tracks.
With the win, the Boks tightened their grip on the Rugby Championship.
October 28, 2023: Springboks 12 – 11 All Blacks, Saint-Denis (France World Cup)
Not much needs to be said about why this match was a historic one.
While the Springboks gilded the pages of their stacked history books with a record fourth world cup title, All Blacks skipper Sam Cane became the first player to be red-carded in a world cup final.
But that was perhaps not as decisive as one would expect as the Boks also lost two players to yellow cards.
The All Blacks scored the only try of the match in the 58th minute courtesy of Beauden Barrett, which was the first time in their four finals that the Boks had conceded a try. That alone might have suggested that the night wouldn’t end favourably for the South Africans, but this is a team that knows nothing of a white flag and in no other contest did they make it clearer than on that icy night in Saint-Denis.
Handré Pollard scored all his team’s points with four first-half penalties while Pieter-Steph du Toit single-handedly put together the study guide on colossal defence in a performance that epitomised “big match temperament”.
No words can do the kind of determination and character that the Boks embodied on that night justice.
- Wynona Louw
