The fourth and final Test of South Africa’s series against New Zealand has a nickname that will make rugby union traditionalists do a double-take: the “money game”.Rian Oberholzer, South Africa’s rugby chief executive, does not flinch at the description. The match will be played in Baltimore because it is expected to generate substantially more cash, potentially up to $8million (£5.9m). The two unions will share the profits 50–50, including income from tickets, hospitality, food and drink, sponsorship, broadcasting and merchandise.“We wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t substantial,” Oberholzer says.There is no attempt to disguise the transaction as charity, though nobody involved presents it as a simple money grab, either. South Africa and New Zealand, the two most historically successful nations in rugby union, are taking their brands to the United States while World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, tries to build a new audience there.The series has been christened ‘Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’, and if that sounds like the sort of thing which could be turned into a Netflix mini-series, that is no coincidence.It has been presented that way precisely to appeal to the U.S., the world’s richest sports market and the country that will host the World Cup for the first time in 2031. That kind of grandiosity is familiar to American fans, who crown domestic league winners “world champions” and are generally less squeamish about sport’s commercial machinery than their European counterparts, as the recent soccer World Cup — with its historically high ticket prices, TV commercial-friendly ‘hydration breaks’ and half-time final show — proved.Ardie Savea scores a try for New Zealand in the third Test (Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images)The question is whether the packaging can make an unfamiliar contest feel consequential, and whether a lucrative afternoon in Maryland can leave behind something more durable than a healthy ledger.South Africa, at least, has a clear target: for Americans to choose the Springboks as their second-favourite team. “We would like to be the team that America recognises,” Oberholzer says.The idea began to take shape during the 2023 World Cup in France, where South Africa beat New Zealand in the final. The two unions spoke to broadcasters, formed a working group and agreed that the series would be staged every four years. South Africa would host the first edition. New Zealand will host the next, in 2030.The U.S. became the obvious destination to stage one of the Tests because of 2031, and the fact that it will host the women’s edition two years later. World Rugby had identified it as the sport’s most important growth market, and two of South Africa’s major sponsors, Nike and Coca-Cola, are American companies.A promoter was appointed and began shopping the match around to U.S. cities, with Baltimore emerging as the favourite partly due to its ambition to host matches at the 2031 World Cup. The city offered a large stadium, a useful location on the eastern seaboard and an engaged venue and franchise owner. The match forms part of World Rugby’s £200m investment in the U.S.M&T Bank Stadium is hosting the fourth South Africa vs New Zealand Test (Jess Rapfogel/Getty Images)This is not rugby’s first American experiment: New Zealand have already filled Chicago’s Soldier Field for Tests against Ireland in 2016 and 2025. South Africa regularly take the Springboks abroad and have turned London’s Twickenham, the world’s largest purpose-built rugby stadium, into something of a home away from home. But no previous foray onto foreign soil carries the commercial architecture or historical weight of this series.Alan Gilpin, World Rugby’s chief executive, says it has been studying the NFL’s international series, which has spent more than a decade taking regular-season games to England and elsewhere before returning to the markets that best respond.