It’s one of rugby’s great rivalries and playing this Rugby Championship match at Ellis Park makes it all the more exciting.
There have been many epics at this stadium in Johannesburg, which is not the happiest of venues for the All Blacks.
Of the 13 matches they have played there against the Springboks, only four have been won.
One of the defeats was the 1995 World Cup final. A most recent win for the visitors was in 2013, also during the Rugby Championship, with the score a convincing 38-27.
The All Blacks could have snatched another last year but for referee Wayne Barne’s decision to award a late penalty to the Springboks based on the replay he had seen on the stadium’s big screen which was not requested by him but shown arbitrarily by those involved in the television coverage.
Coach Steve Hansen has made a brave decision to throw two debutants to the wolves – flyhalf Lima Sopoaga and lock James Broadhurst, both of whom excelled for the Highlanders and Hurricanes respectively in this year’s Super Rugby.
Sopoaga’s inclusion pushes Beauden Barrett to the bench, just as Broadhurst’s debut to partner Brodie Retallick in the middle of the scrum means the bench for senior lock Sam Whitelock.
Charles Piutau, the player whose future as an All Black was at one time in doubt after he controversially signed to play for Ulster next year after first agreeing to resign with the New Zealand Rugby Union, plays his third consecutive Test this year.
Piutau made the most metres and the most carries against Samoa in Apia and followed that up with being the second best in both categories against the Pumas last week.
Also included ahead of a more senior player is hooker Codie Taylor who scored a try in his debut against the Pumas. Out of the 23 are hooker Keven Mealamu and backrower Jerome Kaino.
The two teams have played 89 times since 1921, with the All Blacks winning 51. Three matches were drawn. Coach Heyneke Meyer has recalled flanker Heinrich Brussow to start despite the player last playing a Test at the World Cup in 2011.
What is more surprising is that Brussow was not even included in the wider training group as the Springboks prepared to play the World XV two weeks ago.
Openside flanker Schalk Burger will lead the team as the Springboks’ 55th captain in place of the injured Victor Matfield. Burger will play out of position at No. 8 as the Boks start with two openside flankers.
There have been controversies in the rugby links between the two, notably when during the apartheid era the Springboks insisted on not allowing the All Blacks to include non-white players in their squad on tour.
For the other match between the Pumas and the Wallabies, coach Michael Cheika of the latter has made seven changes to the starting 15, which indicates that despite his team starting the competition with a 24-20 win against the Springboks last weekend, Cheika is far from satisfied with some of his boys.
Former captain and flanker Michael Hooper drops to the bench, as is former vice-captain Quade Cooper. Their spots are given to David Pocock and Bernard Foley respectively.
While the results in this championship will be of no consequence to the World Cup beginning in September, they do affect a team’s preparations as they approach the biggest stage in world rugby.
Last year’s win by the Springboks against the All Blacks last year for example was their first since 2011 and the first for Meyer in six matches.
Something like that does help with the confidence. Expect little to be given away at Ellis Park.
– http://www.nst.com.my
