The final chapters of the Springboks’ success story have yet to be written, writes SIMON BORCHARDT.
Rassie Erasmus and Siya Kolisi’s Springboks have gained rugby immortality by winning back-to-back World Cups, two Rugby Championships and a British & Irish Lions series. Throw in the Freedom Cup and Mandela Challenge Plate and you have a bulging trophy cabinet that is the envy of the rugby world.
However, true sporting greats are never satisfied, so it was encouraging to hear Kolisi say ‘we don’t want to stop there’ after lifting the Rugby Championship trophy in Nelspruit, because there’s still so much more for them to achieve in this most golden of Springbok eras.
Winning a full Rugby Championship this year for the first time since 2009 was a significant achievement for the Boks, considering Erasmus’ selection experiments, but it would be an even bigger feat if they defended their title in 2025, as their two matches against the All Blacks will be played in New Zealand.
You would expect one of those fixtures to be at Eden Park, and how sweet would it be if it was the Springboks who ended the All Blacks’ incredible 50-match unbeaten run at their Auckland fortress.
The Boks have also never gone through a Rugby Championship unbeaten (the one-point loss to Argentina in Santiago cost them a ‘Sanzaar Slam’ this year) so that’s something else to aim for.
A ‘mini-series’ win in New Zealand next year would be the perfect appetiser to the full-course meal in 2026, when the All Blacks embark on a full tour of South Africa for the first time in 30 years. Matches against our four URC franchises and South Africa A will be followed by a mouthwatering three-Test series between rugby’s greatest rivals.
In 1996, the All Blacks won a Test series in South Africa for the first time in five attempts and were given the kind of ticker-tape parade in Auckland that these days is reserved only for World Cup winners. That is how much it meant to New Zealanders back then, and it will mean just as much to whoever triumphs in 2026.
And then, of course, in 2027 the Springboks will aim to become the first team to win a hat-trick of World Cup titles, which would surely end the debate about the greatest rugby team of all-time. It’s still a long way off and some of the current veterans won’t make it to Australia, but judging from the quality of youngsters Erasmus introduced to the Bok set-up this season, South Africa will arrive Down Under primed to make history.
It’s no wonder, then, that Kolisi backtracked on his decision to retire from Test rugby after the 2023 World Cup and stick around for another four years in whatever role the Boks need him. The team he and Erasmus have built over the past seven years has become one of sport’s great success stories, but its epic conclusion still needs to be written.
Photo: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
