VIDEO: Francke Horn's full-circle family moment against New Zealand
REACTION: History has a funny way of repeating itself, and for two players that was exactly the case when the Lions faced the All Blacks at 10Bet Ellis Park in the final midweek clash of the Greatest Rivalry series on Tuesday evening.
The touring New Zealanders emerged as 41-35 winners in a fiercely contested clash, with an upset for the Lions seemingly on the cards right up until the very end.
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But after the full-time whistle, another bit of history was written, 30 years later.
Lions captain Francke Horn followed in the footsteps of his father, Francois, who played against New Zealand for Boland in a midweek tour clash in Worcester back in 1996.
Interestingly enough, his counterpart Ethan Blackadder’s father, Todd, played against Horn’s dad in that clash and now their sons had the honour of squaring off three decades later in a historic fixture.
Horn reflected on the moment with pride and spoke about what it meant for him.
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“It was such a special moment. I actually chatted to Ethan Blackadder afterwards, and we swopped jerseys.
“He was also on the same page about our fathers playing against each other, and we will probably have a beer [together] later on. It’s such a surreal moment.”
The Lions skipper also crossed the whitewash following a powerful scrum but joked that his dad still beat him in terms of points scored against the All Blacks.
“The try I scored was probably the easiest one I’ll ever have, and I thanked the front row for that.
“I scored five points [against New Zealand], and my dad scored six, so he’s still in the lead,” a chuckling Horn said.
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Touching on the match itself, the Lions skipper admitted the tempo was initially tough to deal with after not playing since their 2025/26 United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against Leinster on May 30, but praised his team for staying in the fight until the final whistle.
“We haven’t done too much contact fitness, so there was a time I looked up at the scoreboard and saw only 15 minutes had passed and thought to myself that it can’t be true,” Horn said lightheartedly.
“I looked at a few guys, and we spoke about it, but luckily after halftime our second wind kicked in.
“It was an unbelievable start and credit to the crowd; they were so loud and noisy for that first 10 minutes. I’m so proud of the guys that we can put up a performance like that.
“For the crowd to come out on a Tuesday evening, a working day… hopefully we did enough tonight for when we play Leinster at the end of September that the same amount or even a bigger crowd would be here.
“They carried us through a lot of stuff; every time we kept New Zealand out, we started believing, and the same for when we scored.
“Credit to everyone for working really hard. It was a once-off experience, and we made the badge proud,” he concluded.
