Watch every second of the All Blacks tour of South Africa live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nFrom August 29 to September 12 it is exclusively Tests between the teams ranked first and second in the world, with Cape Town, Johannesburg and American city Baltimore the battlegrounds.<\/p>\n
The tour pits nations that have won seven of the 10 Rugby World Cup tournaments between them, including the last four with the All Blacks, then the Springboks, winning back-to-back titles.<\/p>\n
It was 30 years ago that the giants were last involved in an extended tour, which New Zealand won 2-1 for their lone series success in six attempts in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Branded the ‘Greatest Rivalry’, the tours will be staged every four years with New Zealand playing hosts in 2030.<\/p>\n
The tour led to the cancellation this year of the Rugby Championship, the annual six-round southern hemisphere event held between August and October, with Australia and Argentina.<\/p>\n
South Africa will play one-off Tests against Argentina, this Saturday in Buenos Aires, and Australia in Perth on September 27.<\/p>\n
Despite the excitement of four Tests within 22 days, the ‘Greatest Rivalry’ has also sparked criticism, particularly concerning ticket prices and the Baltimore Test.<\/p>\n
Although the most popular national team in a country where football attracts the greatest interest, the Springboks failed to fill stadiums for three July Nations Championship matches.<\/p>\n
There were 10,000 empty seats against England in Johannesburg, 5,000 when Scotland visited Pretoria, and 10,000 against Wales in Durban.<\/p>\n
The All Blacks are the most popular visitors, though, and the first two Tests in Johannesburg and Cape Town have reportedly been sold out.<\/p>\n
– ‘Absolutely perfect’ –<\/p>\n
Ticket purchases for the England Test rose sharply only after prices were reduced. Originally, the best seats cost 3,000 rand ($185) in a country experiencing a cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n
By the Durban Test, the prime seats had been reduced to 1,800 rand ($110). The South African Rugby Union (SARU) have promised a ticket prices review before next season.<\/p>\n
Taking the last Test to the east coast of the United States has triggered criticism, including from the South African media and a former All Black.<\/p>\n
Wing Jeff Wilson toured South Africa with the All Blacks 30 years ago and believes the ‘Greatest Rivalry’ would have been perfect if one week shorter.<\/p>\n
“The three Tests in South Africa would have been perfect. Absolutely perfect. You are guaranteed to get a result. We did not need a fourth Test,” he told a New Zealand TV show.<\/p>\n
SARU chief executive Rian Oberholzer said commercial and strategic considerations influenced the decision to play in Baltimore.<\/p>\n
“To create financial stability we must take our brand beyond South Africa. America is a very important market leading up to 2031, when the World Cup will be staged there,” he said.<\/p>\n
Coaches Rassie Erasmus of South Africa and Dave Rennie of New Zealand have given little away so far when quizzed about the Test series.<\/p>\n
“We have not done a lot of analysing when it comes to the All Blacks. The squad for the ‘Greatest Rivalry’ will be announced only after we play Argentina this weekend,” said Erasmus.<\/p>\n
Rennie, who took charge in March, said: “We are well aware of the task ahead. Rassie has done a phenomenal job.”<\/p>\n
South Africa enter the series having won 11 straight Tests. The Springboks have also triumphed in five of the last six clashes with the All Blacks, including a 43-10 drubbing in Wellington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hosts South Africa and visitors New Zealand are going back to the future with a rugby tour that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[10751,64,63,760,85,2995],"class_list":["post-845247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-all-blacks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-springboks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845247","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=845247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}