Before the World Cup settled all arguments, rugby’s world supremacy was invariably decided between South Africa and New Zealand.Two former outposts of the British Empire improved the game that England invented, and used rugby to forge their identity and raise their stature on the global stage. The Springboks and All Blacks stopped dancing around each other in 1921 when South Africa arrived in New Zealand by steamship.For the next 75 years, to the dawn of the professional era, the rugby tours to each other’s shores were titanic in length and depth, and fervor and controversy.On the 30th anniversary of the last traditional tour between them, the All Blacks are in South Africa, opening an eight-match, six-week expedition on Friday in Cape Town. They and the Springboks will cross the Atlantic for marketing reasons to play the fourth and final test match in the NFL home of the Baltimore Ravens.
“These are the tours we’ve only heard of,” Boks captain Siya Kolisi said when the tour was announced. “To experience this for the first time ... is unbelievable for us as a group.”Two-thirds of the 88 total players across both squads weren’t even born during the last tour in 1996. Kolisi was 5 years old. New Zealand captain Ardie Savea was 2. But they all know the history and its weight.From the beginning, South Africa-New Zealand matchups set the standard for intensity and tension, enhanced off the field by respect and reverence.
