GAME DAY I No rivalry like it: Springboks and All Blacks set for another Ellis Park epic

The Springboks and All Blacks meet at Ellis Park on Saturday evening with Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry finely poised. Picture: EPA

The northern hemisphere can say what it likes. There truly is no rivalry in world rugby like the storied one between the Springboks and the All Blacks.

While the history and fierce competition between the teams can be traced to the drawn series in New Zealand in 1921 and the drawn series in South Africa in 1928, the fact is that they were the best teams in the world long before then.

In 1905, the first All Blacks team to tour Great Britain, the famous “Originals”, swept all before them. A year later, the very first team to be called the Springboks did something similar.

Since then, the Boks and All Blacks have so often been playing for the world crown — unofficially and, since the advent of the Rugby World Cup, officially. Of the 10 World Cups played since 1987, the Springboks have won four and the All Blacks three.