RASSIE INFO SESSION: Four tests in four weeks favours Boks in Greatest Rivalry

The confirmation that Baltimore (USA) will be the venue for the final of the four tests in four weeks that will make up the Greatest Rivalry Series against the All Blacks provides another good reason why the Springboks should start as overwhelming favourites to win the inaugural rubber.

Bok coach Rassie Erasmus said at a media information session in Cape Town on Monday that he wasn’t thinking too much about the four game series, which will be played between late August and mid-September, as his first priority is to beat England when the rapidly improving Six Nations team come to Ellis Park for a Nations Cup game in July.

“SOMETHING SPECIAL HAPPENING WITH ENGLAND”

It is understandable that Erasmus is more focused on England right now. They’re on a 10-game winning run, and the media around the team that the Boks beat in the 2019 Rugby World Cup final in Yokohama is becoming more bombastic about their chances of success in Australia in 2027.

“England remind me a bit of Northampton. I remember Jake (White) going into their changeroom after they beat the Bulls a few years ago and saying that they were a team that was going to go on to big things, which they did as they beat Leinster to make the Champions Cup final,” said Erasmus.

“There’s definitely something special happening with England, their record speaks for itself. They’ve won 10 in a row now, and that’s impressive.

"They may lose a few games before they arrive in South Africa as they have a Six Nations to play between now and then, but I remember being part of a Bok team going for a record under Nick Mallett (in 1998). We lost out on the record by losing at Twickenham in the last game of that year.”

So it is all guns blazing in the initial stage of the year towards that England game, with a warmup fixture scheduled for the week before just so that the Boks can get back into the groove, and the returning Japan based players can get back into the group. It will probably be against the Barbarians with the venue due to be announced later.

SERIES AGAINST ALL BLACKS THE BIGGEST THING IN 2026

But with Erasmus at this point not clear about how hard his team will chase the inaugural Nations Cup, with the strength of the team he will send on the northern hemisphere leg in November depending on “how many players we still need to build up international caps for ahead of the World Cup year”, it is the All Black series that will be the main event of 2026.

And Erasmus knows that with four games in the four weeks, depth is going to be a big factor in that series. It is unusual to stage a four match series in the modern era. It used to happen until the 1980s, with the Boks playing four test matches against the British and Irish Lions in South Africa in 1980. The series against the All Blacks was a four game rubber in 1976, and in 1970, and ditto the 1974 routing by the Lions.

What was different back then though was that there were two weeks between each test match, with the touring team playing provincial opposition on the Saturday in between, which gave an opportunity to both experiment or rest players that needed it.

The All Blacks played four tests in four weeks when they won a three game series in South Africa in 1996, with the final game of that year’s Tri-Nations in Cape Town not counting to the series but played just one week before the first test in Durban. Thereafter came games in Pretoria and Johannesburg in successive weeks.

The All Blacks looked almost out on their feet when their No 8 Zinzan Brooke just got them home at Loftus in the second test to confirm the Kiwis’ first ever series win in South Africa, and were then well beaten in the final dead rubber game at Ellis Park when they were quite literally out on their feet.

International rugby is arguably much more physical than it was in that first year of professional rugby so the thought of the same team fronting in each of four games across four weeks and expecting success is fanciful. And Erasmus agrees.

“If we went into the series thinking we can play the same team in every game then we will lose, I have no doubt about that,” said Erasmus.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead but we will have a squad of about 35 players and we will have to use the players intelligently.”

RASSIE CAN DRAW ON AUCKLAND/WELLINGTON EXPERIENCE

What gives the Boks a telling edge is that right now they do seem to have greater depth available to them than the All Blacks, mainly through Erasmus’ rotation policy when it comes to selection.

“We have done it before. We played a very different team in Wellington on our last trip to New Zealand than the one we fielded in the first game in Auckland,” he said.

The Boks won that second game 43-10, a record win against the All Blacks for South Africa and the worst ever defeat in the history of New Zealand rugby.

The decision to play the final game in the USA will make the series additionally challenging and potentially fatiguing and if the series is still on the line in that final game there could be an additional factor favouring the Boks - they will be at home for the duration of the initial part of the series, while the All Blacks would have been on the road since the start of their tour at the beginning of August.

GREATEST RIVALS TO FLY TOGETHER TO AMERICA

It could also create quite a weird situation for the two teams, one that the Boks have experienced before with Argentina but not with their greatest rivals.

“We will probably fly out on a charter flight a few hours after the third test, the two teams together. We’ve done that with Argentina before, the one team sitting on one side of the plane, the other on the other, and it is an interesting experience,” said Erasmus.

The Bok coach admitted that having four tough test matches against the same strong team concentrated into four weeks wouldn’t be what he’d have chosen if he was the sole decision maker, but said that the toughness of the schedule will help both teams in their buildup to the following year’s World Cup.

“It is going to be a huge challenge, very tough playing four games in four weeks, but we did that on the last end of year tour, where each time we played teams that were desperate to beat us. The two teams will be doing something that hasn’t been done before, or hasn’t been done often, but a challenge like that has to be helpful towards the preparation for the World Cup.”

GOOD REHEARSAL FOR INTENSE RWC PLAYOFF PHASE

Indeed, with the Boks facing a potential play-off schedule next year that could feature New Zealand (quarterfinal), France (semifinal) and England (final), or the All Blacks similar if they win the quarterfinal, the toughness of the series could be just what the doctor ordered for both nations as they will be forced to expose a greater number of players to a playoff type atmosphere.

“Depending on our selection plans, we will also release players to play for the URC franchises in their games against the All Blacks to further widen experience,” Erasmus added.

The first game on the All Black tour of South Africa will be against the DHL Stormers in Cape Town on 7 August. The three test matches will be played at Ellis Park on 22 August, Cape Town Stadium on 29 August and FNB Stadium on 5 September, with the game in Baltimore scheduled for 12 September.