New long tours planned for Boks and All Blacks

NEWS: As South Africa gets ready for one of the greatest Springbok Tests on home soil in Round Three of the Rugby Championship at Ellis Park on Saturday, a brand new competition between these two rivals is being planned behind the scenes.

Until now, the Rugby Championship has been one of the pre-eminent international Rugby Union competitions in the world, contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

But get ready for an even bigger eight-week tour every four years between South Africa and New Zealand, dubbed ‘The Greatest Rugby Rivalry’.

This week SA Rugby CEO Rian Oberholzer sat down with a handful of reporters to talk openly about the new plans, sponsorships, and the business at hand.

“I just spent two days with the New Zealand leadership in what we are calling the ‘Greatest Rugby rivalry’.

“It’s a working title, although some people might say it is arrogant to say that. We have signed a memorandum of understanding and we are in the planning phases now.

“We have a draft schedule that must still be agreed. We met with the commercial brokers to set the commercial property, and the sponsorship matrix and we will go to market in due course,” Oberholzer revealed.

The planning is for the long tours to kick off in 2026 and will take place every four years alternating between the two countries.

The All Blacks will face the four United Rugby Championship sides in the inaugural eight-week tour as well as a potential clash against the SA ‘A’ team including three Test matches.

A fourth Test will be played at a neutral venue, most likely in the Northern Hemisphere.

“It is a collaboration of two unions that have agreed to work together off the field.

“Let’s fight on the field and work off the field for the betterment of both unions. We have such a challenge with funding, so we have to create our own opportunities and that is where we are at the moment.

“In principle, everything’s in order and the hard work starts now.

“We have to do ticket pricing for example. We will probably follow the Lions model by starting around the coast, coming back, playing the Test matches – three Test matches in South Africa – and one out of South Africa before the series starts,” Oberholzer confirmed.

“The Rugby Championship will still happen but it will probably be a single round, which we are pushing for.

“If it is not going to happen, SA Rugby confirmed with Argentina and Australia to play one-off Test matches against them. That is a discussion that we need finally in the second week of September,” he explained.

“Having staged sellout matches over the past two years against the All Blacks and Wales at Twickenham, London may have seemed the obvious destination in 2026, but the Women’s Rugby World Cup will be played in the UK at the same time.”

The Rugby Championship will likely take place in that year, with SA preferring a single round of matches but New Zealand is making the case for it not to be played.

If that route is pursued, Argentina and Australia will play a Test each against the Springboks in 2026.

SA Rugby and the New Zealand Rugby Union hope to reach finality in the second week of September.