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The first edition of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) series has delivered on the promise implicit in the title, and after two absorbing Test matches we are heading towards a blockbuster third game at the FNB Stadium, which only the brave would be prepared to predict the outcome of.The Springboks bounced back in Cape Town as we suspected they would. The loss in Johannesburg was like a dropped catch in cricket, in the sense it was a missed opportunity that gave the opponent a life, and the Boks should really be heading to the decider of the South African leg of the tour 2-0 up.And yet there is also no denying the massive improvements that have already been made to the All Black team since Dave Rennie took over as coach. While it is irksome that they think they have the right to pontificate to the rest of the world on how the game should be played, and there was no doubting the influence Rennie’s off-field bleating had on the referee, Angus Gardner, who completely negated the Boks’ scrum strength, they also play the style they are set up to play very well indeed.Nine tries across two games tell a story, and the Boks’ defence will require some improvement before the next game. To my mind, the Boks’ power game has had the measure of them for all but the telling last 25 minutes of the game at Ellis Park, but it will be interesting to see how Rassie Erasmus goes about his selection this week to sustain that physical dominance.He has told the media that had the Boks won in the first game in Johannesburg, he would have changed up for the second game, thereby keeping the team that started at Ellis Park fresh for a game that he has always regarded as the probable decider.He might have expected the Boks to be 2-0 up when he spoke of it being a decider; now the battle for the RGR trophy will go to Baltimore on the final weekend, regardless of what happens at Soccer City. The team that loses this week will be playing to save the series and get a share of the trophy while the team that wins will be looking to win it outright.I have expressed my view on the Baltimore game being part of the series often enough already — Saturday’s game should really be the decider. At the same time, I do like the fact that we still have two games to come, for it delays the inevitable feeling of anticlimax that will follow this period where this series between the best two teams in the world is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. The greater depth of the Boks’ squad makes them the favourites to clinch it, as the toll of the Boks’ physicality has to make itself felt by the visitors at some point.What has been frustrating, and it has clearly frustrated Rassie Erasmus, who used several expletives when he addressed the issue in his postmatch press conference, has been the constant off-field attempts from the All Black coach to influence the match officials.What was particularly impressive about the Bok win was that it was achieved in a game where Gardner removed the scrum as their weapon, but that should not be the case, and hopefully it won’t be when the more independent Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli takes the whistle in the third Test.Scrums are a big part of rugby union, and most of the nations that were at the most recent Shape of the Game conference agreed with that, with Australia and New Zealand having to accept the consensus. If those nations ever get their way, they will have turned rugby union into the code that is mounting the threat to the sport’s popularity in their own countries — rugby league. Why should the rest of the world change to suit their requirements? This is my final column in this newspaper, and thanks for reading it. I won’t be back to comment on the third Test, but those who want to know my views can pick them up from my work for supersport.com and on the Talking Boks and Moneyman podcasts.
