All Blacks and Springboks agree to drawn series scenario

The Springboks and All Blacks have agreed that in the event of a drawn series in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour, there will be no tiebreaker, leaving the series as a draw.

Wednesday afternoon’s trophy launch event in Johannesburg revealed the decision, as former Springboks captain Gary Teichmann carried one half of the sculptural trophy through a crowd and onto the stage, followed shortly after by former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick with the other half.

Once on stage, the pair pressed the two pieces of the trophy together, revealing how magnets join them to form a single trophy, which would be handed to the winner of the series should either side claim at least three wins.

Inherent in the trophy’s design is the accommodation of a drawn series, with each team able to take one half of the trophy home for the next four years, until the next tour. Both of the first two tours between the two great rivals, in 1921 and 1928, ended in a draw.

 

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The trophy design resembles a blade of grass, with New Zealand’s half adorned by Maori art elements designed by Kereama Taepa, and South Africa’s half featuring artwork by Bonolo Chepape.

“The brief to the agencies was to create a trophy that was really like no other, and one to capture the essence of the rivalry,” said Rian Oberholzer, CEO of SA Rugby.

“The thinking included the idea that the trophy could be split in two to represent the two halves of the rivalry or that each nation could keep one half if the series was shared.

“This is the eighth time in 12 tours that the series has included four Tests, and if each team has won two tests at the end of 320 minutes of intense rugby, it seemed inappropriate to decide a winner on an arbitrary metric.”

Steve Lancaster, CEO of New Zealand Rugby said: “The trophy is a really fitting way to recognise what this rivalry is about. It’s something different and unique, and importantly, it tells the story of two teams and two countries that have been competing against each other for more than 100 years.

“Every Test adds to that history. There’s a real respect between the two sides, but also that desire to get one over each other and find a way to win.

“And if the Series is drawn, the fact the trophy can be shared is something special to this tour and this concept. It’s a fitting reflection of just how closely matched these teams have been over the years, and the intensity of a rivalry that has endured for more than a century.”

As the first All Blacks captain to win a series on South African soil, Fitzpatrick said the decision to allow for a drawn series was the right one.

“I think that’s fine. I don’t want to go to a kickoff or extra time. Just let the rivalry continue; I think that’s the way it should be,” he told reporters at the launch event.

“I think the trophy is phenomenal. The fact that if it is drawn, we can split it in half and take our half and they’ve got their half.”

South Africa Rugby president Mark Alexander said that while some more recent discussions had explored tiebreaker scenarios, the original idea was for the series to be treated as just that, a series, rather than a competition.

“When we started this discussion, we always talked about playing a four-game series, and we never spoke about a tiebreaker,” Alexander told RugbyPass. “That’s why we designed the trophy in two parts. Later, discussions came, but we couldn’t find each other on tiebreaker scenarios, so we said ‘let history continue’.

“If there’s no series winner, you take your part of the trophy, we take our part, and we keep our trophies at home. That’s the beauty of the trophy.

“It’s not a competition, it’s a series. It’s not a championship, it’s a series. I think the principle of that series remains.

“I know everybody wants a winner, but I think it’s fair. We tried to come together, and in all the things we’ve done thus far with New Zealand, we’ve tried to find consensus; if we don’t find consensus, we move on. That’s the beauty of this relationship; it’s a relationship built over time.”