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1,283 items · Springboks · Analysis
Record loose trio, Kolbe at 15, and the Grobbelaar curse: Soweto squad winners and losers
Planet Rugby's winners-and-losers breakdown of the Soweto squad covers the record-breaking loose trio, Kolbe's full-back shift, Willemse's injury impact, and recurring frustrations for Grobbelaar and De Villiers.
Springbok snarl is back — but Rassie's F-bomb moment draws a rebuke
Planet Rugby credits the Boks for a deserved Cape Town win driven by veteran physicality and a revived snarl — but Rassie's F-bomb press conference moment earns a rebuke, with the column calling for SA Rugby to intervene on decorum.
Kolbe's boot steadies Boks as series heads to Joburg locked at 1-1
Kolbe's 18-point kicking display levelled the series in Cape Town, and he reflects on the camp's post-Ellis Park mood, his goal-kicking development, and what a fired-up All Blacks side will bring in the third Test.
All Black mind games are tainting the Greatest Rivalry
Louw argues that New Zealand's post-Cape Town scrum complaints are less a technical concern and more a deliberate attempt to shape referee thinking — part of a broader media campaign that has, in her view, tainted the series even as South Africa levelled it with a dominant 33-26 performance.
Matfield crowns Etzebeth the greatest Springbok of all time
Matfield has labelled Etzebeth the greatest Springbok ever after his standout display in the series-levelling Cape Town win — high praise from someone who held that standard himself.
Five moments that swung the Cape Town Test — and the series
Coetzee identifies the five moments that defined the Boks' Cape Town win — from a two-minute opening try that answered Ellis Park's demons, to Esterhuizen's last-gasp turnover — and argues the real shift was mental: smarter decisions, points banked, adversity absorbed.
Mallett: Gardner abdicated scrum responsibility and handed New Zealand a free pass
Mallett argues Gardner abdicated scrum responsibility, handing New Zealand a free pass on set-piece penalties and nullifying what should have been South Africa's decisive weapon — with the third Test referee now under the spotlight.
Rassie's MCD — Mad Genius Disease — and why the Fourie selection was method, not madness
Gavin Rich argues Erasmus's Fourie-at-hooker gamble was calculated genius rather than panic, defends the late team-sheet change as entirely within the spirit of 23-man rugby, and rails against referee Angus Gardner's scrum abdication — while also capturing the genuine mutual respect between the Boks and All Blacks that underpins Rugby's Greatest Rivalry.
Cape Town correction: How the Boks fixed their Ellis Park errors — and why Rennie's complaints miss the point
Louw dissects the Cape Town win through the lens of Bok adaptation — sharper red-zone conversion, lineout dominance, breakdown mastery — while taking Robertson to task for deflecting from New Zealand's set-piece problems with post-match complaints about the Bok scrum.
Kolbe wants back-to-back 'Blou Maandag' moments
Kolbe warns the All Blacks will be motivated by revenge, and argues the Boks must raise their intensity to secure back-to-back wins over New Zealand.
Mallett: The Rassie-Rennie mind games are drowning out the rugby
Mallett argues the Erasmus-Rennie back-and-forth is a distraction from the Springbok-All Black series itself — the piece weighs whether the mind games have any real strategic value.
Soweto selection puzzle: Will Rassie stick or twist for the decider?
Rich unpacks why Erasmus's Soweto selection is unusually difficult to predict — his original rotation plan was disrupted by the Johannesburg loss, the All Blacks are proving a tougher physical proposition than anticipated, and the squad that won in Cape Town is now two tests deep with real fatigue questions.
Theatre or overreach? Ex-All Black weighs in on Rassie's post-match meltdown
Ant Strachan and Gregor Paul dissect Erasmus's post-Cape Town press conference eruption — one sympathetic to the method, the other arguing Rassie turned a non-issue into the headline and handed the All Blacks a narrative gift.
Rassie's Soweto selection puzzle: back up or change up?
Rich unpacks the selection dilemma Erasmus faces for Soweto: his original rotation plan was built on a 2-0 lead that never materialised, the All Blacks are proving harder to physically wear down than anticipated, and an Etzebeth in career-best form headlining a squad that's backed up twice must now do it all again in what amounts to a mini-decider.
NZ media credits Rassie's front-row bomb for Cape Town turnaround
New Zealand's rugby press is candid about Cape Town — Erasmus's last-minute front-row switch blindsided the All Blacks' prep and the Boks' superior collision work and game management did the rest, with Love and Jordie Barrett both off their Johannesburg peaks.
The Cape Town scrum explained: why both Rennie and Erasmus were partly right — and partly wrong
A technical dismantling of the Cape Town scrum controversy — what Rennie's 'walking around' charge actually means mechanically, why Nché's hip mobility sits at the centre of it, and how surface conditions, referee approach and Erasmus's deliberate substitution timing all shaped a penalty count that neither coach's public narrative fully explains.
Tupaea pinpoints where the Boks hurt the All Blacks most
Tupaea identifies the high-ball battle and the All Blacks' own errors as the decisive factors in the second Test loss, with both areas squarely in New Zealand's sights heading into the series decider at FNB Stadium.
Cape Town win keeps Boks alive — but at what cost going into Soweto?
The Boks were sharper and more efficient in Cape Town, but Spink argues they burned through every available lifeline to win — and the Erasmus front-row switch will hand the All Blacks a motivational edge heading into the Soweto decider.
Erasmus fires back at Rennie over scrum allegations
Erasmus hits back at Rennie's 'walking around' scrum accusations, calling it deliberate referee-influencing and pointing to unpunished All Black infringements as evidence of double standards — the exchange sets up a spicy narrative heading into the third Test in Johannesburg.
Erasmus's front-row bluff, Marx's deployment window, and why New Zealand's media game backfired
Erasmus's anonymous front-row switch bought lineout dominance at the cost of scrum control, but the real margin came from deploying Marx into the precise refereeing window where jackling penalties are most rewarded. The piece also argues Rennie won the media-tactics battle this week — and that the All Blacks' lineout problems are more serious than their stats suggest.