It's a go — Springboks and All Blacks to resume full tours in 2026

Springbok Kobus Wiese in action during the Test match between South Africa and New Zealand in Pretoria, South Africa, on 24 August 1996. This was the last full tour between the countries. (Photo: Dave Rogers / Allsport)

By Craig Ray

3 Sep 2024

Formal agreements have been reached between South Africa and New Zealand for full tours to resume between the Springboks and All Blacks. It will be marketed as “The Greatest Rugby Rivalry”.

Eight matches – including three Tests, four contests against United Rugby Championship (URC) clubs and one match against SA “A” will mark the All Blacks’ first full tour to South Africa in 30 years when they arrive in 2026.

There will be a fourth Test, but that will be staged outside of South Africa – probably played in London, or North America – that won’t form part of the official series.

These are the broad details of a deal between the South African Rugby Union (Saru) and New Zealand Rugby (NZR) to strengthen connections between the old foes.

The first series under this new agreement will be played in South Africa in 2026, marking the 30th anniversary of the All Blacks’ last tour to the Republic in 1996. Sean Fitzpatrick’s men won that series 2-1, becoming the first All Black team to ever win a series in South Africa.

The Boks will tour New Zealand in 2030, with a similar eight-match schedule. The 1937 tourists remain the only Springbok team to win a series in New Zealand.

Greatest Rugby Rivalry

The series framework has the working title “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry” and will be marketed under that name. It will probably ruffle some feathers in the northern hemisphere, but objectively speaking the Boks and All Blacks have been rugby’s two strongest teams and brands for more than a century.

Last week the Saru and NZR leaders met in Johannesburg before the first Test between the Boks and All Blacks (as they regularly do) to finalise the details of the resumption of tours between the old foes.

Daily Maverick reported in February that full tours were set to resume after initial “positive talks”. The framework and details have now fully been agreed in principle and final contracts are being drafted.

“I just spent two days with the New Zealand leadership in what we are calling the Greatest Rugby Rivalry,” Saru chief executive Rian Oberholzer said on the eve of last week’s Rugby Championship Test between the Boks and All Blacks at Ellis Park. The Boks won 31-27.

Saru chief executive Rian Oberholzer has confirmed that full tours between the Boks and All Blacks will resume in 2026. (Photo: Grant Pitcher / Gallo Images)

“It’s a working title, although some people might say it is arrogant to say that,” Oberholzer continued. “We have signed a memorandum of understanding and we are in the planning phases now. We have a draft schedule that must still be agreed.

“We met with the commercial brokers on setting the commercial property, the sponsorship matrix and we will go to market in due course. We believe we have to be in the broadcast market soon.

“It is a collaboration of two unions that have agreed to work together off the field. We believe we have to be closer – and we have never been close.

“Let’s fight on the field and let’s work off the field to the betterment of both of the unions. We have such a challenge in rugby with funding, so we have to create our own opportunities, and that is what we are busy with at the moment.”

Sharing agreement

Income, in terms of commercial value and broadcasting rights for the tour will be shared evenly although the home union will take a larger share of the ticket and match-day revenue.

Unlike in years previously when all but the 1996 tour were held in the amateur era, and even that tour was in professional rugby’s infancy, there are some commercial headaches to overcome.

Both the Boks and the All Blacks, as well as Saru and NZR have commercial and sponsorship partners that might clash, or be competitors in the same market.

So part of the negotiations will be around what is “sacred” and what is not. In other words, whose branding might go where. While it sounds like a small thing, millions of dollars are at play.

“In principle, everything’s in order and the hard work starts now,” Oberholzer said.

“We have to do ticket pricing, for example. We will probably follow the Lions model by starting around the coast, come back, play the Test matches – three Test matches in South Africa – and one out of South Africa before the series starts.”

Rugby Championship impact

Naturally a tour of this nature will have an impact on the 2026 Rugby Championship, and also the 2030 edition of the tournament.

Rugby Australia and the Argentina Rugby Union are unlikely to be happy about this development, something Saru and NZR expect.

Regardless, South Africa and New Zealand have decided to put their own interests first in a difficult commercial climate. A tour of this nature will earn both unions hundreds of millions of rand, but will also create massive interest in the game again.

The All Blacks and Boks have won seven Rugby World Cups between them and have combined held the official No 1 ranking for 985 weeks (New Zealand 743 weeks and the Boks 242 weeks) out of the 1095 weeks since rankings were introduced.

“The Rugby Championship will still happen, but it will probably be a single round, which we are pushing for,” Oberholzer said.

“If it is not going to happen, we as Saru did say to Argentina and Australia that we will play one-off Test matches against them. That is a discussion that we need finally in the second week of September.”

Mending fences

It’s been four years since NZR communicated to Saru that they were extracting themselves from Super Rugby under Covid-19 constraints and a differing view of the future.

It was a seismic announcement, and, as it turned out, not a very good decision by the NZR. It’s no surprise then that since that day they have tried to re-engineer history by suggesting that the break-up with Saru was actually due to South Africa walking away.

Painting that picture in light of Saru’s successful move to the northern hemisphere at club level was inevitable, but historically inaccurate.

On 17 July 2020 the NZR announced that it would break away from Sanzaar and form a new Super Rugby competition, which excluded South Africa.

That was the outcome, from their Aratipu report, which examined the feasibility of rugby in New Zealand in a post-Covid-19 world.

“The reality is that the impact of Covid has been so significant that we’ve had to look at alternatives and a new direction here,” NZR chief executive Mark Robinson said at the time.

“We haven’t landed on an exact model yet and we’re certainly in consultation with the New Zealand clubs and other parties who are interested in the competition. We’ll be open to people coming into this process with ideas about investment.”

There is no doubt Covid-19 created an unusual set of circumstances, and also that Saru had a presence in the northern hemisphere through the Cheetahs and Kings (remember them?) in the old PRO14.

But there was no burning desire to eject from their southern hemisphere alliance until the NZR effectively fired South Africa, as well Australia and Argentina.

Time has passed, and while South Africa and New Zealand enjoy a fierce but healthy rivalry on the field, they are now ready to embrace each other off the field again. DM

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Greatest Rugby Rivalry

Sharing agreement

Rugby Championship impact

Mending fences