Gavin Rich frames the upcoming four-test Greatest Rivalry Series as something genuinely without modern precedent — four consecutive weeks of No.1 vs No.2, which he argues Dave Rennie himself rates as a tougher ask than any World Cup draw. The analytical core is historical: the Boks haven't won an official series against the All Blacks since Morne du Plessis captained the 1976 side to a 3-1 home win, a result tainted by refereeing controversy that left the All Blacks furious. The three official series since — 1981, 1994, 1996 — all went New Zealand's way. Rich walks through each, including the flour-bomb test chaos of 1981 where Naas Botha's missed conversion and a deep-injury-time Norling penalty handed the series to the All Blacks, and the 1996 Fitzpatrick-led side that became the first All Black team to win a series on South African soil. Unofficial sweeps in the Tri-Nations (1998, 2009) and the Rugby Championship are acknowledged but correctly set aside — none count as a series.
The piece also contextualises why series between these two have always carried outsized weight — pre-World Cup they were the de facto world championship, and Rich argues that status has largely persisted into the professional era given the combined World Cup haul of the two nations. For Springbok supporters, the stakes framing is the real value here: this isn't just four tests, it's a chance to end the longest series drought in the modern rivalry, in a format that offers nowhere to hide.