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Springboks lead World Rugby rankings by 3.61 points ahead of Nations Championship
South Africa top the World Rugby rankings on 93.94 points, 3.61 clear of New Zealand, as the Springboks head into the inaugural Nations Championship. World Rugby has also confirmed the removal of home weighting from the rankings system from 1 July 2026.
Mallett: Pollard can't afford the same margin for error as his rivals
Mallett argues Pollard faces a stricter margin for error than Libbok or Feinberg-Mngomezulu — his value is built on flawless execution, not attacking flair, which makes costly errors against Leinster especially damaging heading into the England clash.
Wales lose hooker Belcher to neck injury ahead of Springbok clash
Wales hooker Liam Belcher has been ruled out of the Nations Championship, including the Test against South Africa, with a neck injury suffered in Cardiff's URC quarterfinal against the Stormers.
Burger backs Horn at 10 — but flags the real test still to come
Burger praises Horn's fullback-brained approach to fly-half but warns that game management under Test-match pressure remains the unproven part of the equation.
A Local Laaitie | Ethan Hooker
Ethan Hooker's rise up the rugby ranks has been epitomised by discipline, hard work and resilience from a young ago. Check out the third episode of or series, 'A Local Laaitie' now.
Full circle at Ellis Park: Kolisi on the moment that started it all
Kolisi revisits the 2018 Ellis Park comeback — down 24-3, no answers under the posts, and a crash course in shared leadership — as the Boks prepare to return to the same ground against the same opposition for the Nations Championship opener.
Erasmus: 'We don't see the Nations Championship as a competition'
Erasmus says the Boks won't adjust their approach to chase Nations Championship log points — each Test is treated as a standalone match, with squad rotation across the window as the priority over competition standings.
Joubert: Janse van Rensburg would've relished the Ellis Park stage
Joubert believes Janse van Rensburg had every reason to want to prove himself against the Boks at Ellis Park — and the full piece digs into what his absence means.
Ex-Bok: Janse van Rensburg would have had a point to prove against the Boks
Marius Joubert weighs in on Benhard Janse van Rensburg missing the chance to face the Boks in an England shirt — and why that fixture would have meant more than most.
Cardinelli: Rassie Is Building for 2027 — and Beyond — With an Athletic, Utility-First Squad
Jon Cardinelli argues Rassie is fast-tracking an athletic, utility-heavy generation of Springboks, with the bomb squad being rebuilt around hybrid forwards and the brutal four-test All Blacks series demanding squad depth above all else.
Burger sees chaos-creator in Norton — with one fix needed
Burger backs Norton as a natural fit for Brown's chaos-style attack, identifies a clean offloading game as the one tweak needed — and the injury-ravaged lock stocks mean that fix could fast-track a full Test debut.
Graham Henry's praise puts Rassie's depth chart in sharp perspective
Graham Henry's public defence of Rassie's rotation policy gives this depth-chart breakdown an unusual angle — with position-by-position analysis showing just how far Springbok depth now extends beyond the current 46-man squad.
Rassie isn't buying into the Nations Championship bonus-point game
Erasmus has made clear the Boks aren't chasing bonus points in the Nations Championship — winning Tests and building toward the World Cup is the only metric that counts. This piece examines whether that mindset will hold across the top nations and what it means for the new competition's real-world impact.
Norton's Bok call-up wasn't luck — the numbers and the attitude back it up
Norton's Barbarians stats — 80 minutes, 100% tackle success, a try — underpin why Erasmus pulled him from the Junior World Championship. The piece builds a compelling case that this is a long-term bet on a player already embedded in Bok thinking, not a panic call.
Why Erasmus chose Norton over Van der Mescht — and what it reveals about Bok lock priorities
Erasmus explains the Norton-over-Van der Mescht call as a tactical fit decision rather than a quality judgment — the piece breaks down the Bok lock crisis and how the coaching staff are navigating it.
England adopt no-excuses stance ahead of Ellis Park Test opener
England travel for their summer tour on Wednesday with Jamie George as captain and a no-excuses stance on their demanding itinerary, as Rassie Erasmus acknowledges the difficulty of reading a Borthwick-coached England ahead of the July 4 Nations Championship opener at Ellis Park.
Norton over Van der Mescht: Erasmus explains lock call as fit, not form
Rassie Erasmus has defended Riley Norton's promotion to the Springbok squad ahead of Northampton's JJ van der Mescht, insisting the decision hinged on tactical fit rather than a judgement of quality. The 20-year-old Junior Springbok captain impressed in the 80-31 victory over the Barbarians in Gqeberha, completing 80 minutes and scoring a try. Erasmus stressed the two locks offer contrasting skill sets, with Norton's lineout leadership and mobility suiting current requirements.
Riley Norton: The numbers behind a call-up that surprised everyone but Rassie
A stat-backed case for why Norton's Bok call-up reflects genuine coaching conviction rather than desperation — and why the Erasmus/van der Mescht comparison misses the point entirely.
Watson: Kolbe is England's biggest headache — but Bok versatility is the real danger
Watson names Kolbe as England's biggest individual concern but argues the Boks' real edge is their ability to change tactical identity based on which fly-half starts — a flexibility that makes them uniquely hard to prepare for.
Contepomi's warning: Boks are dangerous precisely because attack and forward dominance now combine
Contepomi argues the Boks' real danger isn't attack or forward dominance in isolation — it's that Tony Brown's influence has made them fluent in both, with the football intelligence to switch between them at will. A sharp external read ahead of the England test.