Boks must rise above All Blacks' goading game

OPINION: The Springboks need to block out the noise and persist with their highly successful game plan in the lead-up to the Greatest Rivalry opener at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Since touching down in South Africa two weeks ago, the All Blacks and the New Zealand media have pushed a narrative around the men in black and their arch-rivals.

To be fair, that narrative has been in place for the better part of a century.

The All Blacks prioritise attack and attempt to play the game at speed.

By contrast, the Boks use their set-piece, offensive defence and kick-chase strategy to stifle the flow of the game.

The narrative, of course, is horribly outdated in 2026 – and you’ve got to wonder what the authors of this particular story are trying to achieve in the lead-up to the Greatest Rivalry Tests.

The Boks have won back-to-back World Cups as well as back-to-back Rugby Championships – and over the course of this golden era, they have found multiple ways to win a contest.

While retaining their traditional strengths, they have added more layers to their attacking game in recent seasons.

2025 was year to remember in terms of results (86%) and the fact that the Boks averaged 41 points and 5.8 tries per match.

In the recent Nations Championship matches, they averaged 43 points and seven tries per match, and finished at the top of the southern conference standings – ahead of the All Blacks – by virtue of their superior points-difference.

Those aren’t the numbers of a team that is slow, boring or devoid of ambition.

Rassie Erasmus’ Boks are playing an all-court brand of rugby without compromising their quest for consistent results.

To suggest otherwise is to argue with the facts and figures.

And again, you have to ask why some are calling for the Boks to match the All Blacks’ approach, and why they are demanding an attacking shootout this Saturday.

Some South African fans might read the above and wonder why the Boks can’t go head-to-head with the All Blacks in this manner.

Surely this is the next step in the Boks’ evolution? Surely they should try to match the mythical team in black, and win the hearts and minds of every neutral on the planet?

While these are fair questions, they don’t take a couple of facts into account.

Firstly, the All Blacks have failed to claim many meaningful results and titles in recent seasons.

New Zealand have lost five of the last six games against South Africa – with the most recent meeting in Wellington ending in a record-breaking 43-10 victory for the Boks.

Secondly, it would be counterproductive for the Boks to play a more adventurous brand that negates their own strengths and plays into the All Blacks’ hands.

Bok fans will be hungry for another 43-10 scoreline this week, but the contest is likely to be far closer, and the tourists should not be taken lightly.

The All Blacks won 24-17 in Auckland last year, while the Boks won 31-27 and 18-12 in the Freedom Cup clashes staged in South Africa back in 2024.

There’s another narrative out there that the gap between the Boks and the All Blacks has grown, but many of the recent scorelines would suggest otherwise.

Erasmus would do well to keep his players on track this week, as they build towards the first Test at Ellis Park.

The noise will build to a clamour over the next few days, as members of the New Zealand rugby community challenge the Boks to go toe-to-toe with the All Blacks in an attacking spectacle “worthy of the occasion”.

The Boks would do well to shut out the noise – and remember what their well-balanced approach has yielded to date.

They should avoid taking the bait.

They should persist with a set-piece and tactical-kicking plan that has the potential to fracture the All Blacks’ defence.

They should avoid overplaying and providing the All Blacks with turnover opportunities that result in tries and points at the other end of the park.

In short, they should give the All Blacks absolutely nothing.

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The Boks have shown that they can play a bold brand of rugby, and there will be moments this Saturday when there are opportunities to showcase those strengths.

But there’s a difference between bold and reckless – and Erasmus and his coaches should go out of their way to remind the players of the fact this week.

The Boks must play bold rugby, but on their own terms.

They must scrum the All Blacks into submission, apply the pressure at the gain line and kick chase – and create scoring opportunities for Cheslin Kolbe and company to finish.

Every team sets out with the intent to win, but both sets of coaches and players will know that the result of the first Test will be particularly important, as it will shape the narrative for the rest of the series.

If the Boks lose at Ellis Park, the All Blacks will head to Cape Town with a strong chance of extending their lead to 2-0.

Even if the tourists lose the following game at FNB Stadium, they may fancy their chances of clinching the fourth Test, which will be staged on neutral soil in Baltimore, USA.

If the Boks win this Saturday, Erasmus can push forward with his plans to rotate the wider squad.

Even if they lose in Cape Town, the Boks will feel that they have the squad depth to go the distance in the third and fourth Tests.

By contrast, the increasingly desperate All Blacks – who may need to rely on a core group of players to stay alive in the series – may be running on empty.

Again, the stats make a compelling argument about the Boks’ status as an all-court team. They have nothing to prove in this respect.

This week, they will need to show that they can rise above the noise, and that they can claim a result that will set the tone for the rest of a monumental series.