{"id":328497,"date":"2025-12-05T02:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328497\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T02:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:40:10","slug":"black-ferns-and-springbok-women-join-2026-rugbys-greatest-rivalry-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328497\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Ferns and Springbok Women join 2026 Rugby&#8217;s Greatest Rivalry tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand-women\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Zealand<\/a> and South Africa\u2019s famous rivalry begins a new chapter in 2026 with the Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry tour, a mouth-watering prospect that just got juicier with the addition of a Springbok Women vs Black Ferns double-header.<\/p>\n<p>The match will precede the third Test between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> and Springboks on September 5 at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, and will be the first time the two national women\u2019s teams have squared off in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand\u2019s 46-17 win over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/south-africa-women\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Africa<\/a> in the quarter finals of the 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/rugby-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby World Cup<\/a> was just the second meeting between the two proud rugby nations, after 2010\u2019s Rugby World Cup, which was also in England.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Ferns XV toured South Africa earlier in 2025, splitting a two-match series with one win apiece.<\/p>\n<p>It was only a matter of time before the Black Ferns and Springbok Women built a rivalry of their own, and with the latter\u2019s recent growth on the world stage, the 2026 fixture looms as the start of something special.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\">\u201cThis double-header adds extra weight to what is already shaping up to be one of the most significant tours in modern rugby,\u201d said New Zealand Rugby CEO\u00a0Mark Robinson. \u201cIt gives fans,\u00a0players\u00a0and the broader rugby community an opportunity to\u00a0witness\u00a0the depth,\u00a0history,\u00a0and intensity of rivalry\u00a0between four of our national teams.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\">\u201cWe want Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry\u00a0to\u00a0showcase\u00a0everything that is\u00a0great about traditional rugby tours,\u00a0while\u00a0being\u00a0like no other,\u00a0and part of that means offering more for fans to see and engage with.\u00a0This\u00a0additional\u00a0Test is another way for us to bring this to life, and we know fans will be excited the same way we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/815.png.webp\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> South Africa <\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/811.png.webp\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> New Zealand <\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/new-zealand-vs-south-africa\/?g=949461\/\" class=\"link-box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">   <\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\">SA Rugby CEO Rian Oberholzer shared his Kiwi counterpart\u2019s excitement for the fixture and recognised the growth of the South African program after a historic 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\">\u201cWe have seen our traditional teams, the Springboks, Junior Springboks and Blitzboks, all win titles in 2025, and it was equally inspiring to see our investment in our women\u2019s game starting to bear fruit,\u201d said Oberholzer.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\">\u201cOur Springbok Women made history in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england-women\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> with a best-ever World Cup performance and for the first time broke into the top ten on the world rankings.\u00a0For them to be playing the Black Ferns in South Africa for the first time, as a double-header before the Boks take on the All Blacks, is fantastic. I want to thank all involved who helped get this match over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand and South Africa\u2019s famous rivalry begins a new chapter in 2026 with the Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-328497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}