This is building up to be one of the classic clashes in the history of The Rugby Championship. Here is a head to head breakdown of how the two teams compare.
These teams have met each other 85 times in the past, with the All Blacks having won 48 of these encounters and the Springboks 35, only 3 draws have ever been recorded between these sides.
If history and statistics are to be believed, then it would seem that the All Blacks have the edge over the Springboks in this game, having scored a total of 1612 points against the Springboks while the Springboks have only scored 1313 points against the All Blacks. This is an average score of 19-15 in favour of the All Blacks.
The Springboks also have the highest success rate of all other teams against the All Blacks, by winning 40% of the encounters between these sides.
The largest winning margin by the All Blacks over the Springboks was 36 points and the largest winning margin by the Springboks was 17.
This however looks like the year of the BOK and if the Springboks can keep up to their form of late they could beat the All Blacks over the weekend. This is always as massive clash and the table is set for yet another massive clash.
Starting 15
1 Tony Woodcock / 1 Tendai Mtawarira
184cm – Height – 183cm
118kg – Weight – 115kg
101 – Caps – 47
45 – Points – 10
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2 Dane Coles / 2 Bismarck du Plessis
185cm – Height – 189cm
96kg – Weight – 112kg
08 – Caps – 51
0 – Points – 35
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3 Owen Franks / 3 Jannie du Plessis
185cm – Height – 188cm
119kg – Weight – 120kg
49 – Caps – 48
0 – Points – 5
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4 Brodie Retallick / 4 Eben Etzebeth
204cm – Height – 203cm
115kg – Weight – 117kg
17 – Caps – 17
0 – Points – 0
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5 Sam Whitelock / 5 Flip van der Merwe
202cm – Height – 198cm
102kg – Weight – 120kg
44 – Caps – 29
20 – Points – 5
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6 Liam Messam / 6 Francois Louw
190cm – Height – 190cm
108kg – Weight – 114kg
22 – Caps – 22
15 – Points – 25
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7 Sam Cane / 7 Willem Alberts
190cm – Height – 192cm
100kg – Weight – 120kg
08 – Caps – 24
15 – Points – 30
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8 Kieran Read (Captain) / 8 Duane Vermeulen
193cm – Height – 193cm
108kg – Weight – 108kg
54 – Caps – 10
45 – Points – 5
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9 Aaron Smith / 9 Ruan Pienaar
169cm – Height – 187cm
80kg – Weight – 92kg
18 – Caps – 69
35 – Points – 150
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10 Daniel Carter / 10 Morné Steyn
178cm – Height – 184cm
93kg – Weight – 91kg
96 – Caps – 48
1407 – Points – 593
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11 Julian Savea / 11 Bryan Habana
190cm – Height – 180cm
104kg – Weight – 94kg
14 – Caps – 89
70 – Points – 255
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12 Ma’a Nonu / 12 Jean de Villiers (Captain)
182cm – Height – 190cm
104kg – Weight – 100kg
81 – Caps – 90
125 – Points – 115
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13 Conrad Smith / 13 JJ Engelbrecht
186cm – Height – 190cm
95kg – Weight – 94kg
72 – Caps – 07
120 – Points – 20
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14 Ben Smith / 14 Willie le Roux
188cm – Height – 186cm
85kg – Weight – 90kg
18 – Caps – 06
45 – Points – 05
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15 Israel Dagg / 15 Zane Kirchner
186cm – Height – 184cm
95kg – Weight – 92kg
31 – Caps – 25
65 – Points – 20
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Replacements
16 Keven Mealamu / 16 Adriaan Strauss
17 Wyatt Crockett / 17 Gurthrö Steenkamp
18 Charlie Faumuina / 18 Coenie Oosthuizen
19 Steven Luatua / 19 Juandré Kruger
20 Matt Todd / 20 Siya Kolisi
21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow / 21 Jano Vermaak
22 Beauden Barrett / 22 Patrick Lambie
23 Charles Piutau / 23 Jan Serfontein
Total Caps on bench
156 / 131
30 @ Pietman:
Vriend… my hart is in stukke vir jou.
Sal jou Ma netnou bel.
Was goed om op Skype te kon gesels en jy moet Toitjie Muller kontak daar in Riyadh, ek het jou nommer soontoe deurgegee, wag nog vir antwoord dat dit ontvang is.
@ grootblousmile:
Dankie bru,Ma sal dit waardeer.
Ok,ek wag vir Toitjie.
Check this, the last time we won at Eden Park, 76 years ago!:
25 September 1937
Eden Park, Auckland
South Africa
17
New Zealand
6
Captain: Phil Nel Referee: Joseph King (New Zealand)
Attendance: 55000
Team:
Combined caps: 108 tests (starting 15)
Position Player Province Age Prev Tests Scoring
Loose-head Prop Boy Louw WP 31 14
Hooker Jan Lotz Tvl 27 4
Tight-head Prop Fanie Louw Tvl 28 8
Lock (C) Phil Nel Natal 35 15
Lock Mauritz van den Berg WP 28 3
Flank Ebbo Bastard Natal 25 3
Flank Lukas Strachan Tvl 30 6
Eighthman Ferdie Bergh Tvl 30 13 1 try
Scrumhalf Danie Craven EP 26 12
Flyhalf Tony Harris Tvl 21 1
Left Wing Freddy Turner Tvl 23 7 1 try
Inside Centre Louis Babrow WP 22 4 2 tries
Outside Centre Flappie Lochner EP 23 0
Right Wing Dai Williams WP 24 4 1 try
Full Back Gerrie Brand WP 30 14 1 conversion
New Zealand: 2 penalties
It was ALSO in the month of September, and we ALSO had two brothers in the front row…I have a feeling in my left te####cle tomorrow will be our day again, ALSO by 11 points…
32 @ Pietman:
Ek het met jou Ma gesels…
@ Pietman:
jammer om van jou nuus te hoor aanlyn vriend. hoop jy en jou familie bly sterk.
@ grootblousmile:
@ MacroBull:
Dankie manne, ek waardeer dit.
30 @ Pietman:
Piet,
I am so sorry to hear that Boet. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
@ Puma:
Thank you Puma.
Time to do my Bru picks… what will it be?
Should I pick the FS Cheetahs or the Golden Lions?
Should I pick the Bokke or the All Blacks at home?
Arghhh Ok… was time to be positive about the Bokke…
In the Currie Cup I picked FS Cheetahs, Sharks & WP… spit, spit, spit!
Gbs,
Go: Lions, Sharks, Bulls, Boks and Pumas
Those are the teams to win this weekend….
41 @ Puma:
Jeeez, somehow I do not think the Wallabies can continue to be this bad… would like them to lose, but did not pick so.
Blue Bulls would do bloody well if they had to beat the WP, even at Loftus…
Cheetahs / Lions game is a toss-up and with the Staat hurting from a loss last week, there will be hell for leather in Bloemmies.
42 @ grootblousmile:
I put my picks in early as usual before teams were announced.
Why did your Bulls not start with Engelbrecht (sp) again? I personally think he is better than Du Plessis. Then also noticed the scrummie is off to France… 🙄 So should have waited for team announcement.
See Arg too have a few changes. Just went with them after seeing Oz so totally outplayed by us. Cooper too is just dreadful for them at fh. Toomua should have started especially that the Brumbies scrummie is starting. As their inside centre is from Brumbies as well. Makes sense to me that.
Boks by 4. They up for this one I just feel they will sneak a win tomorrow. If not no problem I never go against my teams ever. Boks and Sharks always get a win from me on bru….
Also why the Lions have Kriel on the bench again??? 🙄 I just don’t understand that. Still think they will beat the Cheetahs.
38 @ Pietman:
Piet,
I only see this now. I feel so sorry for you boet. Your pain must be huge. I lost my pa when I was only 24 years old, was such a big loss so lose a father so young. At any age to lose a father is a great loss.
My old ma is still struggling and will be going to see her tomorrow after the Boks game. Like I told you before she is 86 now. Time too is not on her side.
43 @ Puma:
I would have started with Vleis Engelbrecght too… quality player and possible future Bok.
If the Bokke win, it will be a squeeker, in all likelyhood…. just do not trust the bloody All Blacks at home…. will be a tussle and I think they’re up for it too, hope the Bokke do not lose badly. Went with the heart for the Bokke, but very small margin.
I recon one could play “Reds Rugby” against the Pumas and get away with it (not against the All blacks and Springboks)… and that seems to be how McKenzie plays his game.
46 @ grootblousmile:
I still think against the Pumas if they play Reds rugby they could come up short.
Yes agree, Engelbrecht is of international standard. See what came of EP getting a chance in SR, some players were finally able to come and show their quality. If not for that these players might have been lost into the system. Vlies is a Alberts type of player like for like. So there is one good thing we know we have another player to step in if Alberts gets injured. I also still rate Deysel a lot as well.
Yip the All Blacks are up for this one for sure, as much as we are. However, we should have beaten them last year with McCaw playing. This year he is not there and I don’t rate Cane in the same class. Also look at their hooker? He does not compare to Bismarck nor Strauss for that matter. I know they have their loosies are quality, but think ours are better and like I said no McCaw and Cane in instead? We can win this one by a few. I have Boks by 4
Okay have to take a call. Back in a half hour.
@ grootblousmile:
I see I got the yellow cap last weekend. My first one I think.
Up to 3rd on the log. Not as good as my team but there is room for improvement!
🙂
48 @ Stormersboy:
So, Yellow cap holder… give us your picks / predictions.
I’m in the nether regions on Currie Cup Bru…. and my picks are done anyway
@ grootblousmile:
haha Free State, Stormers and Sharks. First 2 by 6 and the other 14
50 @ Stormersboy:
In line with my picks… what about the Bokke game?
Just reading the NZ Herald. Here is another good feel article from them about our two teams rivalry. Have seen a few this week there from, Mexted, C. Meads and a few others. All of these articles have been top class. Have enjoyed them all.
=============================================================================================
Sky TV’s Scotty Stevenson on rugby
ABs v Boks the rivalry to end all rivalries
By Scotty Stevenson
For any number of reasons tomorrow’s test match will be one to savour. For me, every test between New Zealand and South Africa deserves to be devoured with great delight.
It is the rivalry to end all rivalries and for me it is extra special.
You see, half my family cheers for the other mob.
My mum came to New Zealand in the 1970s, when hair was long and shorts were short and sideburns were compulsory (and that was just Kiwi women) and when a South African immigrant was something of a novelty, and not a particularly welcome one. If the early ’70s were tough for her, you can imagine what the early ’80s were like. It didn’t really matter that mum found apartheid as abhorrent as most rational New Zealanders did. The accent was as good as a target on the back.
Of course, I was a little too young to remember all the fuss of 1981, but it was real and it was important and, in listening to the stories of those on the frontlines (on both sides of the conflict, too) it was unbelievably disturbing. However, behind the politics and the protest and the goodwill and bad, the rivalry remained. Regardless of where you stood on the issue, one thing is for certain, those blokes must have really wanted to play each other.
Our family lived in a kind of rugby limbo for the best part of the next decade. There was no contact with South Africa to divide our clan – unless you count the Cavaliers, and New Zealand rugby certainly doesn’t – until, in 1992, the All Blacks set foot once more on African shores. I remember that game, I remember what it meant to my family, and I remember the smile on mum’s face, and the phone calls between sisters and cousins and grandparents that accompanied it. And I remember that being about the last time mum was a Springbok fan.
Eventually, she became a Kiwi. And what treason it would be to support any other team than the All Blacks when your passport says New Zealand citizen.
In 1995, I headed to South Africa for the first time. At the age of 18 I met my family. Through sheer good luck, the Rugby World Cup would be played in South Africa that year.
Through sheer good fortune, I would be there the whole year. Just like mum had been in the ’70s, I was the novelty in the ’90s. My school, Woodridge College, was a half-hour’s drive from Port Elizabeth. I’m sure I was the only Kiwi in the whole of the Cape, or at least that’s how it felt. And of course, as the All Blacks cut a swathe through the tournament and as the Springboks managed somehow to make it through to a final against them, everything was set for the showdown for the ages. It was. And the All Blacks lost. And South Africa rejoiced.
And I still had six months left there.
That the South Africans won the Cup meant the world to their fans. That they beat the All Blacks to do it meant the whole damn universe. The greatest rivalry in rugby writ large on the bottom of a jumbo jet and etched in the wrinkles of Nelson Mandela’s smile.
I remember walking into the school dining hall, deflated, defeated and distraught. What happened next has stayed with me all these years: as I walked in, the entire school, black, white, coloured and every shade in between, stood and sang Shosholoza for a full 10 minutes. One of the most amazing things I have experienced.
Despite much cajoling, my South African family has never managed to get me into a Springbok supporter’s jersey, but never ones to be dissuaded from a quest, now they have gone to work on the next generation. The arrival of each of my two sons has been accompanied by gifts from the republic: Springbok beanies and scarves, Springbok teddy bears and Springbok badges.
They will stay in the cupboard and when the boys are old enough they can ask me what they are, and I’ll tell them of the texts and the phone calls and the baiting and the gloating that accompanies each and every All Blacks-Springbok test. And I’ll tell them of the greatest rivalry in all of rugby and why it means so much to our family and why it means so much to the men playing the game. And I’ll also tell them why Aunty Mal texts us at 3 in morning. Because she still hasn’t figured out the time difference.
By Scotty Stevenson
@ grootblousmile:
I’m going with the Bokke. by 5.
Putting my picks with my heart!
😀
53 @ Stormersboy:
Fark, we are a confident lot, who love to go with our hearts, are’nt we!
@ grootblousmile:
Totally. It’s a roller coaster ride but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
54 @ grootblousmile:
I did last week with our Boks and we won….
Why did you not back our Bokke against a weak Wallabie side?
This week it is even strength. I think our Boks can take them. Will be close somewhere around 5. Though if our discipline is not 100% that could cost us. We can not afford to lose a player to the bin for 10min this time.
56 @ Puma:
Mendoza spooked me… eish
57 @ grootblousmile:
I know, but sort of expected that, as it happened last year as well. Then last year we should have beaten both Wallabies and ABs. In both games we let ourselves down, as we were the better side. So took that into account. Also I know we only beat England at Twickenham by one point, but I thought that game showed the character of this team. We played in terrible conditions in the driving icy rain and in front of a hostile crowd. It was a arm wrestle and we came out tops. That game I said before the Aussie game is where we should take our confidence. I felt we would beat Oz all week. Just never thought by that much. Tomorrow I think we will win by a few. That will be enough for me like it was against England at Twickenham. If we don’t win, no train smash we still in this RC and it will be decided at Ellis Park. The ABs have huge pressure this is a must win game for them, being a point down from us and a home game for them. No pressure on us to be honest. So think we will. Our Boks minds are in the right place this time round.
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