{"id":590319,"date":"2026-09-04T20:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T20:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/590319\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T20:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T20:46:13","slug":"all-blacks-captain-ardie-savea-would-like-to-win-a-coin-toss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/590319\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks captain Ardie Savea would like to win a coin toss"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks captain Ardie Savea is yet to win a coin toss this year and he would like that to change against the Springboks on Sunday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the series tied 1-1 both teams are viewing the third test in Johannesburg<\/a>, the last on South African soil before the final game in the US, as the series decider.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks know they’ll need to make a better start than they have in the first two tests if they’re to win at FNB Stadium, with the Springboks dominance in the early stages of last weekend’s game in Cape Town one of the keys to their victory.<\/p>\n

All Blacks coach Dave Rennie joked earlier this week it would help if Savea won a coin toss and Savea revealed at the captain’s run in Johannesburg that he has lost all six coin tosses this season.<\/p>\n

“I’ve lost every single coin toss this year,” Savea said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been going heads, tails. Then I’ve been going, Lord, tell me. Still lose.”<\/p>\n

\"All<\/p>\n

Ardie Savea in action against Ireland.<\/p>\n

Brett Phibbs \/ www.photosport.nz<\/p>\n

Savea said the opposition got to make the call on the coin toss when the All Blacks hosted France, Italy and Ireland for the Nations Championship matches in July, but said it was on him in South Africa.<\/p>\n

“I do get to call it. In the Nations Cup I wasn’t calling it, but in this tour, yeah, I’ve been calling it.”<\/p>\n

Savea has no set plan on what he might call during the coin toss for this weekend’s third test, but he hopes he finally wins one.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know. I’d say tails, but I might go heads. I don’t know.”<\/p>\n

One thing Savea does know is the importance of winning Sunday morning’s match. He said it’s one of the biggest tests of his career.<\/p>\n

“I think we all know the importance and the spectacle of this game coming up,” Savea said.<\/p>\n

“If you’re thinking of it like State of Origin, it’s game three, 1-1 here in Africa, so it’s a big one. How good is it to go play this Soweto Stadium and challenge ourselves and try and get the win?”<\/p>\n

\"Pieter-Steph<\/p>\n

Ardie Savea and Cam Roigard make a tackle.<\/p>\n

Samuel Shivambu\/BackpagePix<\/p>\n

Rain could play a role in the test on Sunday morning, but Savea said that won’t change how the All Blacks play. He said they need to be that little bit better in all areas to challenge the Springboks.<\/p>\n

“We know how we want to play and South Africa know how they want to play and the game comes down to fine margins.<\/p>\n

“I think we didn’t win those last week and the Springboks took advantage of that. We’ve got to be really clinical, really accurate, disciplined.<\/p>\n

“We can’t give a big hand up to the Springboks because they’re world champs for a reason. If you do that, you ain’t coming back. We’ve got to start well and we’ve got to put ourselves in great positions to stay in the game.”<\/p>\n

Savea has loved being in South Africa and said it has been special to have his wife and children with him.<\/p>\n

“It’s been amazing to be in a country like South Africa. They say you’ve got to be careful, it’s dangerous and all this. Yeah, there may be parts of Africa that are dangerous, but the majority of the time that they’ve been here, it’s been absolutely beautiful.”<\/p>\n

He said his family have loved every minute of their time in the Rainbow Nation.<\/p>\n

“They’ve had an awesome time. The people have been amazing. The people of South Africa, the tours and the people they’ve met along the way, they’ve had an amazing time.<\/p>\n

\"Ardie<\/p>\n

Ardie Savea and his family after a test.<\/p>\n

Andrew Cornaga\/www.photosport.nz<\/p>\n

Savea said having his family nearby has helped keep his spirits high.<\/p>\n

“For me to go do my work with the All Blacks and then come here and see them, it’s been a massive blessing.”<\/p>\n

Savea has also been spending time with the South African public, even going to the house of someone he’d just met for a haircut.<\/p>\n

“We like to bless other people and that just happened to be one of the opportunities. Seeing a young man serving in the background when there was all the noise at the front and his mum just happened to be a hairdresser.<\/p>\n

“I took the gamble, took the risk but it was a beautiful moment of meeting the people of Africa, a lovely family and also getting a haircut. The grandad, he knew more All Blacks players than I did and he was a true All Blacks fan so it was a pretty special moment.”<\/p>\n

It will be a special moment for Savea and the All Blacks if they can win on Sunday morning in Soweto, with New Zealand having not won a full series in South Africa since 1996.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks captain Ardie Savea is yet to win a coin toss this year and he would like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-590319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}