Match Day Programme: All Blacks v Springboks

The nation rivalry between South Africa and New Zealand stretches as far back as 1921 when both sides met for the first time in a fixture won by the All Black 13-5 in Dunedin. Since then this is how the fixture has played out:

Fixture: New Zealand vs South Africa

Venue: Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand

Kickoff Time: 19:05 (Local), 08:05 (GMT)

Referee: Matheiu Raynal

Head-to-head Played:

Played:103

New Zealand Wins: 61

South Africa Wins: 38 

Draws: 4

Points for:

New Zealand: 2,143

South Africa: 1,674

Average score: 21-16

Highest score:

New Zealand: 57 (57-15 on 8 October, 2016 and 57-0 on 16 September, 2017)

South Africa: 46 (46-30 on 19 August, 2000)

Biggest winning margin

New Zealand: 57-0 on 16 September, 2017

South Africa: 17-0 on 30 June, 1928)

Last Meeting: 13 August, 2022 – South Africa 23-35 New Zealand – Ellis Park

Overall Rugby Championship/Tri-Nations records:

2022 Rugby Championship results:

New Zealand

L 26-10 (a) v South Africa
W 35-23 (a) v South Africa
L 25-18 (h) v Argentina
W 53-3 (h) v Argentina
W 39-37 (a) v Australia
W 40-14 (h) v Australia.

South Africa

W 26-10 (h) v New Zealand
L 35-23 (h) v New Zealand
L 25-17 (a) v Australia
W 24-8 v Australia (a)
W 36-20 (a) v Argentina
W 38-21 (h) v Argentina.

Team News:

New Zealand: Brodie Retallick, Mark Telea, Samisoni Taukei’aho and Will Jordan will make their return to the side while uncapped prop Tamaiti Williams has also been selected in the match-day 23. 

South Africa: Jacques Nienaber named 10 of the 14 players who travelled to New Zealand a week ago to acclimatise to the conditions and time zone in his matchday squad – nine of whom will start

Trivia:

• If New Zealand win it will be their 100th win in the Tri-Nations/The Rugby Championship.

• Should New Zealand score 28 points, they will have scored a total of 4000 points since the competitions inception.

• South Africa are undefeated in their last two away fixtures (1 Draw, 1 Win) in their last two fixtures in New Zealand

• South African wing  Kurt-LeeArendse is on a seven-game try scoring streak in men’s Tests, the joint-longest of any player from a Tier 1 nation in the last decade; he’s scored 10tries across that stretch including one in his last game against Argentina in September 2022, and a hat-trick vs Australia last week.

•South Africa have won 37% of their 103 previous men’svTests against New Zealand, the best win rate of any team; in fact, they  are the only team to have won even one third of their games against the All Blacks with Australia(26%)the second most successful team against NewZealand.

• Referee Mathieu Raynal will be celebrating a career milestone as he takes charge of his 40th test match having begun his test officiating career in 2009.