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Savea to miss opening fortnight as All Blacks begin gruelling South African odyssey
New Zealand captain Ardie Savea will remain in New Zealand for the opening fortnight of the All Blacks' historic six-week tour of South Africa, joining the squad only ten days before the first Test against the Springboks in Johannesburg. Head coach Dave Rennie defended the decision by citing Savea's relentless workload since January, with veteran hooker Codie Taylor named tour captain in his absence. The All Blacks arrived in Cape Town on Friday to a rapturous reception ahead of their opening fixture against the Stormers on 7 August.
Rennie confirms Savea return timeline as All Blacks arrive in Cape Town
Dave Rennie confirms Ardie Savea will sit out the Bulls match but join the All Blacks squad in South Africa ten days before the opening Test against the Springboks in Johannesburg on August 22, as 43 of the 44-man touring party arrive in Cape Town via three different routes.
Savea to join All Blacks just before first Test as Rennie juggles tour opening without his captain
Ardie Savea will only join the All Blacks tour party after their Sharks fixture, leaving Dave Rennie without his newly appointed captain for the opening legs of the South African tour. Codie Taylor carries the captaincy duties in the interim, with the squad having arrived in Cape Town via a rerouted itinerary after Middle East travel disruptions.
Rennie backs full-scale tour format as All Blacks arrive in Cape Town
Dave Rennie says the four-test format and provincial fixtures will benefit his developing All Blacks squad as the tour party — minus rested captain Ardie Savea — settles into Cape Town ahead of their opener against the Stormers next Friday.
Argentina Test doubles as final audition for the All Blacks series
Planet Rugby breaks down Erasmus's Argentina squad as a carefully constructed final audition rather than a routine Rugby Championship fixture — identifying who looks locked in for the All Blacks opener and who still has a case to make.
Bulls prop Lizo Gqoboka retires at 36 after remarkable journey to professional rugby
Vodacom Bulls loosehead prop Lizo Gqoboka has announced his retirement from professional rugby at the age of 36. The two-time Springbok, who made over 100 appearances for the Bulls, bowed out with a man-of-the-match performance in a warm-up fixture against the Falcons, scoring two tries and winning eight scrum penalties before informing the union of his decision.
Gqoboka retires at 36 after remarkable journey from rural Eastern Cape to Loftus and Springbok honours
Lizo Gqoboka has retired from professional rugby at 36, ending a career that began with his first game at age 19 and included over a century of Bulls appearances and two Springbok caps.
Currie Cup round three: Junior Bok influx, injury crises, and the last quiet weekend before the All Blacks arrive
With the All Blacks already on South African soil and the RGR series a week away, Rich previews a Currie Cup round shaped by Junior Bok debuts, a mounting injury crisis at Griquas and the Bulls, and two unbeaten sides — Cheetahs and Boland Kavaliers — still to be tested.
Lizo Gqoboka retires after decade-long Bulls career
Bulls loosehead Lizo Gqoboka has retired at 36, ending a career that spanned two Springbok caps and more than a decade at Loftus after rising from truck-loading and funeral parlour work in rural Mount Frere.
Can the Returning Boks Hit the Ground Running Against the All Blacks?
Etzebeth, Kolisi, and Van den Berg are all working their way back from injury ahead of the Greatest Rivalry series, and the piece interrogates whether they'll be sharp enough for Tests of this magnitude. The counterpoint is the Nations Championship form of De Villiers and Wiese, who made compelling cases for themselves in the absences — adding to a depth picture that looks increasingly healthy for the Boks.
Junior Boks flood in as Currie Cup enters its final quiet weekend before the RGR storm
Rich previews a Currie Cup weekend defined by Junior Bok debuts, mounting injury lists, and the looming shadow of the All Blacks tour — with Yaqeen Ahmed's omission read as a pointer to the Stormers' RGR selection.
Howlett's last-gasp try at Jade Stadium revisited ahead of Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series
SA Rugby Magazine revisits Doug Howlett's heartbreaking late try against the Springboks at Jade Stadium in 2004, timed to the build-up of the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series.
Former All Blacks back Blackadder recall ahead of South Africa tour
Ex-New Zealand captain Kieran Read and former half-back Justin Marshall have endorsed Ethan Blackadder's recall to the All Blacks touring squad, citing the flanker's physicality and experience against the Springboks. The 31-year-old Crusaders back-rower last featured for New Zealand in a 31-27 defeat at Ellis Park two years ago.
Read and Marshall back Blackadder as All Blacks' Bok-busting weapon
Read and Marshall argue Blackadder's physicality and experience make him the All Blacks' most important weapon in the upcoming series against the Springboks.
The All Blacks tour is a throwback built by modern machinery — and it ends in Baltimore for a reason
A deep structural read on why the All Blacks' tour is both a genuine throwback to 20th-century touring rugby and a precisely engineered modern product — covering the 1996 historical weight, the logistical complexity Rennie is managing, the significance of the provincial fixtures, and the commercial logic that ends the series in Baltimore.
Read and Marshall back Blackadder to ask questions of Bok defence — but flag a bigger All Black problem
Read and Marshall back Blackadder's recall as a physical counter to the Boks' direct forward game, while Read raises a broader concern: Rennie's All Blacks are leaning too heavily on Darry and not getting the ball to Savea in positions where he can actually hurt a defence like South Africa's.
Naas Botha wants biennial SA–NZ tours — not just a one-off revival
Naas Botha argues the All Blacks' first SA tour since 1996 should kick off a biennial rotation rather than a four-yearly one, making the case that full tours serve players and supporters beyond the Test elite in a way that standalone fixtures simply can't.
Five reasons the Springbok-All Black series is tighter than the rankings suggest
Planet Rugby maps five fault lines across the upcoming four-Test series — fly-half vulnerability, the Kolisi/de Villiers rotation question, Erasmus's seeding of Boks into provincial opposition, Scotland's attacking blueprint from Loftus, and whether altitude is a real factor or convenient excuse — arguing the ranking gap between the sides is far smaller than the July form suggests.
Tour game chaos, Yaqeen's probable debut, and what 'best available' actually means
Rich argues the All Blacks tour has exposed serious structural problems: URC clubs are fielding out-of-season sides with no meaningful share of the gate, while contractual 'best available' obligations collide across competitions. He proposes provincial/invitational alternatives and flags Yaqeen Ahmed as the likely Stormers No.10 against the All Blacks.
Erasmus wants a slow burn, not a flying start, against the All Blacks
Erasmus is framing the Greatest Rivalry series as a deliberate build rather than an out-of-the-blocks effort — he wants the Boks peaking for the crunch Tests, not game one, with World Cup planning running in the background throughout.