MARK KEOHANE | To some, it’s bigger than the World Cup ― first All Blacks tour in decades is here

Thirty years is too long.

Too long for South Africa to have gone without hosting an All Blacks tour. Too long for New Zealand to have been denied spending six weeks in the Republic. Too long for rugby to have forgotten what made this fixture so special.

We’ve had World Cups. We’ve had Rugby Championship Tests. We’ve had one-off encounters in London, Johannesburg, Auckland, Paris and on Australia’s Gold Coast.

What we haven’t had is a tour. A proper tour. The kind that asks as many questions off the field as it does on it.

The All Blacks are back in South Africa, in every sense. They will meet their South African-based supporters between 1pm and 3pm at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town this afternoon (Friday).

Expect a massive turnout.

For all of South Africa’s success at under-20 and Springboks level, the All Blacks remain revered in South Africa by many.

Those South African supporters of the All Blacks have always lived with the romance of the All Blacks and of New Zealand. Most have never been to New Zealand, but they were raised wearing a silver fern and a black jersey.

The All Blacks represented opportunity and excellence at a time when opportunity was reserved to a minority in a segregated South Africa.

The Springboks’ world in 2026 is very different. Siya Kolisi is a two-time World Cup-winning captain and Springboks supporters are as much rainbow in appeal as the team is in representation.

These are great times for the Springboks and South African rugby because the sport finally speaks to the people of South Africa.

This does not mean the All Blacks’ support base has weakened or lessened.

Never, which only adds to the appeal of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series. In rugby terms, this is brother vs brother. That’s what makes this rivalry different.

The Springboks and All Blacks have never just played each other. More appropriately, they have measured each other.

Every great Springbok side has ultimately been judged against the All Blacks. Every great All Blacks team has had to answer the South African question. That has never changed.

Rugby’s greatest rivalry returning to its greatest stage, in a tour, is bigger than the World Cup for traditionalists and more appealing that any one-off occasion that has defined professional rugby since its birth in 1996.

It started in 1921, with the first three-Test series ending one-all. The deciding Test in Wellington ended 0-0 because neither side could break through the other.

One hundred and five years later they are still searching for daylight. The 2023 World Cup final was decided by one point. The 100th Test between the nations, played in Australia, was decided by a Jordie Barrett penalty in the 77th minute, with the All Blacks winning 19-17.

In 110 Tests, the average winning margin is less than an unconverted try.

In South Africa, the two nations have met 54 times. There has been a solitary draw, 28 wins to the Springboks and 25 to the All Blacks. The average score?

Twenty points to New Zealand. Nineteen to South Africa.

Take the rivalry onto neutral soil and it becomes even more ridiculous: Eight matches. Four wins each. The Springboks average 19.6 points a game. The All Blacks 19.5.

World Cups? Three wins each.

These two nations have been impossible to separate in the biggest moments and in the biggest matches.

Then there is the statistic that, for me, defines this rivalry better than any other: the Springboks have only once won a Test series in New Zealand, in 1937. The All Blacks have only once won a Test series in South Africa, back in 1996, when the Sean Fitzpatrick-inspired team produced a history-defining defensive last five minutes to deny the Springboks at Loftus in Pretoria.

That’s why this series matters. Not because it is No 1 against No 2 or because the Boks are back-to-back world champions. It matters because we get to experience the All Blacks in South Africa for five weeks.

Rugby’s greatest rivalry returning to its greatest stage, in a tour, is bigger than the World Cup for traditionalists and more appealing that any one-off occasion that has defined professional rugby since its birth in 1996.

I am among those traditionalists, South African by birth with Kiwi blood from my mother. I have always had a love for the All Blacks, and a greater one for the Springboks.

The prospect of the next month takes me back to 1976 when I was just a pup and Robbie Blair kicked Western Province to a 12-11 win against the All Blacks at Newlands. It takes me back to 1996, when as a rugby journalist, I got to report on the history-making win of Fitzpatrick and his men in black.

The Stormers play host to the All Blacks in the Tour opener in Cape Town next Friday, August 7. The following day it is the Springboks against Argentina in Buenos Aires.

Then it is full on with the All Blacks playing five matches, including three Tests, in four weeks and one for the expats in Baltimore, US, on September 12.