Springboks target historic victory over All Blacks at Eden Park while unions grapple with cash conundrum

If South African rugby was measured only in terms of the success of the Springboks, it’s obvious it would be almost unmatched anywhere in the world. The Boks have been a shining example of excellent planning, commitment and execution in the high-performance sporting arena for the better part of six years.

They will start 2025 as the top team in World Rugby’s rankings and will be the biggest scalp in rugby for the foreseeable future. And their clash against the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland in September promises to be the most keenly anticipated match for both nations.

International rugby

The other major focal point of the 2025 rugby calendar will be the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia. After Covid heavily affected the Lions’ 2021 tour to South Africa, with no fans and off-field spats, there is hope that the trek through Australia will showcase the best of the Lions’ traditions.

Concerns that the Wallabies, who have been struggling on the international stage for years, would pose no challenge to the Lions have been somewhat allayed after they finished 2024 well. Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt has started to turn the team around after just one season in charge, and their victory over England at Twickenham in November was the highlight of their year. But they still lost seven of 12 Tests in 2024.

For the Springboks, the main target in 2025 will undoubtedly be the two Tests against the All Blacks in New Zealand. After four straight wins over the All Blacks in the past two years, including the final of Rugby World Cup 2023, the challenge for the Boks will be to continue that sequence in New Zealand.

The All Blacks are also on an upward curve after some early teething problems under new coach Scott Robertson. They are nearly back to their formidable best.

When the sides collide at Eden Park on 6 September, the Boks won’t only be gunning for a fifth straight win over the old foes. They are also aiming to become the first team to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park in 31 years.

The All Blacks have won 48 of 50 Tests and had two draws at the venue since France beat them in 1994. In fact, the All Blacks have beaten 12 different teams at their stronghold in that period. The Wallabies suffered the most with 20 losses since 1994.

The Boks have not played at Eden Park as frequently – only five times since 1994.  An 18-18 draw that year was their best result. They last appeared at Eden Park in 2013 when Bismarck du Plessis was yellow-carded for a perfect legal tackle on flyhalf Dan Carter, and they lost 29-15.

Although the Rugby Championship and Freedom Cup will be priorities for the Boks in 2025, you can be sure that coach Rassie Erasmus has circled the clash at Eden Park as the most important of the year. For a Bok team that has won everything available to them in the game, becoming the first team in the professional era to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park will be a massive motivation.

Rugby, though, not only in South Africa but globally, is not in the same secure space the Boks find themselves in, and 2025 might see small cracks becoming large fissures.

Equity sale

Away from the field, the need to bump up the cash reserves of the South African Rugby Union (Saru) and boost its income with an injection of capital remains in limbo. Saru’s general council voted against selling a 20% equity stake valued at $75-million to the Seattle-based Ackerley Sports Group (ASG) in December.

ASG has until the end of the year to present a new bid, but if it does, a vote on it will only take place somewhere early in 2025.  Even if ASG ups the cash offer, it’s unlikely that the deal will go ahead as the majority of Saru member unions disliked its structure.

This means Saru will in all likelihood have to go in search of another potential equity partner. If an offer does come – and there are talks of shareholders in the Bulls and Stormers franchises leading a new deal – it will require months of due diligence before it can even be considered. Saru has impressed on its members that an equity sale is vital for the long-term sustainability of the business.

England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) both declared massive losses for the 2023/24 financial year – £34.4-million and €18.4-million, respectively. If two of the most well-resourced and richest unions in the sport are susceptible to such huge losses, what chance do the likes of Saru, underpinned by a weak currency, have? It’s actually miraculous that Saru’s net loss in the 2023/24 financial year was a mere R6.8-million, considering what its far more well-heeled competitors suffered.

Both the RFU and IRFU are also beneficiaries of private equity funding through their dividends paid after CVC Capital bought a small stake (one-seventh) of the Six Nations for £365-million in 2021. In short, they have access to far greater income in economies with much stronger currencies than Saru and are still struggling to balance the books.

Springbok Women player Nadine Roos is tackled by Kendra Cocksedge of the Barbarians at the Cape Town Stadium. (Photo: Gallo Images)

Other teams

The Springbok Women will compete in Rugby World Cup 2025 in England between August and September with renewed hope that they can be competitive and win a match at the showpiece for the first time. They won two of their five Tests in 2024 and took the highly rated Australia to the wire, losing 33-26. This is an indication that they are trending in the right direction.

“If you take the scoreboard away, I see a lot of growth,” Springbok Women’s consulting coach Swys de Bruin said after a narrow loss in the WXV2 tournament against Italy.

“We need to up our physical conditioning much, much more. When the game gets faster and the [opposition] ups the tempo, we leave a lot of gaps and we can’t get there. We are a scrumming team, a mauling team, so that’s one department the ladies know heading into the World Cup: our strength and conditioning will have to improve immensely.”

At a local level the Sharks, Bulls and Lions remain in 2024/25 United Rugby Championship contention, but all the South African teams’ prospects in the Champions Cup look bleak after they had poor starts. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.