{"id":1184859,"date":"2026-09-03T21:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1184859\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:57:13","slug":"springboks-v-all-blacks-siya-kolisi-and-ardie-savea-are-the-best-of-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1184859\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks v All Blacks: Siya Kolisi and Ardie Savea are the ‘best of rugby’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The enduring memory of this Greatest Rivalry series will not be the F-bombs dropped and ill-feeling caused by an ongoing difference of opinion over scrummaging tactics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will not be the set-piece penalty won by New Zealand which turned the first Test their way at Ellis Park, Rassie Erasmus\u2019 almost daily team tinkering prior to match two and the thunderous Springbok performance he unleashed.<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t even be the hair-raising sight of 56,000 fans being buzzed by two passenger jets which came within 12 to 14 metres of scraping the DHL Stadium roof in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

According to one of rugby\u2019s most travelled and longest serving players, none of those snapshots sum up the relationship that exists between the sport\u2019s two superpowers, South Africa<\/a> and New Zealand<\/a>, as well as a video posted after the series was squared last weekend.<\/p>\n

Siya Kolisi moment<\/p>\n

It showed Springboks captain Siya Kolisi<\/a> spotting the daughter of All Blacks skipper Ardie Savea<\/a> on the sidelines at the final whistle and breaking off from what he was doing to go and give her and brothers a hug.<\/p>\n

The spontaneous act struck a chord with Jimmy Gopperth, watching in Brazil, where he was about to play fly-half for the Classic All Blacks invitation team and share the field with \u2018king\u2019 Carlos Spencer.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby, as a sport, is about camaraderie and about connecting with the players you play against and with,\u201d said the former Hurricanes, Newcastle, Leinster, Wasps, Leicester and Provence playmaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe All Blacks have got such a history with South Africa. Yes, it\u2019s war on the field. But when that whistle goes for the end of the game they\u2019re like a group of brothers. A lot of those players really enjoy each other\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat video with Siya and Kobe was awesome to watch. What Kolisi and Savea bring to their group as leaders is that togetherness. The best of rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaches and media might be getting heated about scrums and who is at fault and putting it out there to add a bit of spice. But I don\u2019t think Kolisi and Savea will care about those shenanigans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loose Pass: \u2018The Rassie show\u2019 rolls on as \u2018Trump-ish\u2019 Springboks boss continues to cut a \u2018marmite\u2019 figure<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks team: Winners and losers as \u2018luckless\u2019 forward misses out while Dave Rennie snubs Rieko Ioane and resists the \u2018urge\u2019 to beef up the bench<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Momentum is with South Africa as the Greatest Rivalry<\/a> series returns to the Highveld and Gopperth believes in Rassie Erasmus, the host nation has a coach whose powers of innovation make New Zealand\u2019s job appreciably harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s brilliant at mind games, a brilliant coach and tactician,\u201d says a man who has known a few coaches in his time, having played 526 top level rugby games before retiring last November at the grand age of 42.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving him in their changing room, with the exceptional way he motivates his players to perform, definitely makes the Springboks tougher to beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd after what has been going on in the press this week, there won\u2019t be any lack of motivation from Rassie for his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand are going to have to be at their best to combat that and show what they\u2019re about. But 100 per cent the All Blacks are still firmly in this series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey played exceptionally well in the first Test,\u201d Gopperth adds. \u201cTheir lineout didn\u2019t function at all in the second yet there was, what, seven points difference?<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout having a full set-piece they still had an opportunity to draw the game. These All Blacks have no fear. The way they are attacking, especially on the edges, is awesome to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand boss Dave Rennie has sprung a surprise by benching in-form lock Fabian Holland in favour of Sam Darry, while Peter Lakai is given his first start of the series at blindside in place of Simon Parker.<\/p>\n

Sussed us out<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re well in this Test series,\u201d Gopperth continues. \u201cBut they do need a platform to launch off on Saturday. And if their lineout doesn\u2019t function, they\u2019ve got to get it from kick return.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa sussed us out a little bit in this area last weekend. Rassie worked out that New Zealand were leaving the high ball for the player retreating, rather than one than coming forward. They kicked really short and that put us under huge amounts of pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought New Zealand should have changed and gone back to the traditional player coming forward to dominate that space a little bit more. I\u2019m sure that will have been hot on the training list this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Gopperth has returned to his day job with Gallagher after playing 70 minutes for the Classic All Blacks in a 62-35 defeat of Brazil in Sao Paulo \u2013 the first time in 20 years he was worn the silver fern since his days as a Junior All Black.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really big weekend, it feels like make or break for both sides,\u201d he adds. \u201cFor me, Jordie Barrett is key for New Zealand. He\u2019s the real lynchpin of this team and last week you could see he was frustrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an absolute workhorse. Both sides of his game are excellent. In Cape Town he was flying around in defence, putting some huge shots in. But he had very few opportunities with the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ABs need Jordie to be at his best, as he is pretty much every time he puts that black jersey on.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Sir John Kirwan \u2018bored to tears\u2019 of watching the Springboks as Victor Matfield snipes back at All Blacks legend<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The enduring memory of this Greatest Rivalry series will not be the F-bombs dropped and ill-feeling caused by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1184860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4102],"tags":[126,225,90462,704,12,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":["post-1184859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117209350053945215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}