With the series locked at 1-1 heading into Saturday's third Test at FNB Stadium, Ardie Savea is under no illusions about what went wrong in Cape Town — or what it will take to fix it. His assessment is blunt: the All Blacks lost the fine margins last week, the Boks punished them for it, and doing the same in Soweto effectively hands South Africa a series lead heading to Baltimore. Savea flags the usual Bok pressure points — box kicks, set-piece dominance, momentum-building — and warns his side they cannot expect to wrestle control back once the Springboks get their rhythm. He's also signalling that Erasmus's late front-row switch before the Cape Town Test didn't rattle them, and that they're treating unpredictability as a given. The bigger concern he raises is structural: the All Blacks have been slow starters across recent matches, and against a Bok side that converts early ascendancy into scoreboard pressure, that's a pattern they can't afford to repeat.
Savea: 'You can't give the Boks a hand up — they're world champions for a reason'
Savea's pre-match media session is a frank admission that Cape Town was lost in the margins — and a clear-eyed breakdown of what the All Blacks must do differently in Soweto to stay alive in the series.
- New Zealand
- Springboks
- FNB Stadium
- Rassie Erasmus
All Blacks' loosehead crisis hands Springboks a ready-made weapon in Greatest Rivalry Series
Jeff Wilson has publicly identified loosehead prop as the All Blacks' most dangerous weakness ahead of four consecutive Tests against the Springboks — with Williams likely out, Tu'ungafasi's future uncertain, and the remaining options short on caps and experience. Set against the depth Erasmus has built across the prop positions, this piece maps out why scrum time could be where the Greatest Rivalry Series is decided.
Stephen Donald: Robertson copied the Boks — Rennie must go back to All Blacks DNA
Stephen Donald backs Hansen's anti-copycat argument, saying Robertson erred by chasing the Springbok blueprint rather than New Zealand's tempo-based strengths — and expects Rennie to correct that course ahead of a blockbuster four-Test series in South Africa.
Mulder's '95 Warning: Don't Sleep on the All Blacks
1995 World Cup winner Japie Mulder warns against writing off the All Blacks ahead of the four-Test series, drawing on South Africa's own underdog story to argue the gap in rankings doesn't guarantee a comfortable series win.
Boks remain top but All Blacks close gap to 2.90 points after Nations Championship opener
South Africa stay top of the World Rugby Men's Rankings at 93.94 points but New Zealand have cut the gap to 2.90 after beating France, while Scotland climb to equal their all-time high of fifth following a record 47-38 win over Argentina in Córdoba.
So how deep is the Springbok squad?
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