Gavin Rich's retrospective frames the upcoming four-test Greatest Rivalry Series as something genuinely without modern precedent — four consecutive Saturdays against the world's No 1 or No 2 ranked team, with no soft weeks. The analytical core of the piece is the 50-year series drought: Morne du Plessis's 1976 side were the last Bok team to win an official series against the All Blacks, and the three official series since — 1981, 1994, 1996 — all went New Zealand's way. Rich is careful to distinguish series wins from Rugby Championship sweeps, noting that the 2009 Tri-Nations, the 1998 two-game run under Mallett and Teichmann, and Erasmus's 2024 Rugby Championship results don't count. This is the first official series since 1996.
The piece also traces the thread of refereeing controversy that has run through every series in this rivalry — Bezuidenhout in 1976, Norling's injury-time extension in 1981, neutral officials still drawing complaints in the Cavaliers series — as context for whatever sparring is already happening around interpretations ahead of this one. Rich's conclusion is implicit but pointed: the Boks haven't beaten the All Blacks in a series in half a century, and no Tri-Nations or Rugby Championship win changes that. The full piece is worth reading for the historical texture it brings to what's about to unfold.