All Blacks tour of South Africa is a fact-finding mission for next year

Hawke’s Bay 30 France 25.

I wonder who else remembers that game. You should do, given how much we bang on about the All Blacks’ run of unbeaten games at Eden Park.

France beat the All Blacks 2-0 in 1994: 22-8 at Lancaster Park and then 23-20 in Auckland. In between, came a loss to the Magpies which is remembered fondly by folk here in Hawke’s Bay, but won’t mean a lot to anyone else.

And that’s the point here, really.

The “Greatest Rivalry’ tour is about to kick off, apparently. There’s conjecture about who’ll be in the All Blacks team to meet the Stormers in the opening match, debate about the referees appointed for the tests and reminiscences about the last time the team toured South Africa in 1996.

I remember that tour well. Or at least the Tests. I’ve had to look the result of the mid-week games up.

The internet tells me the All Blacks had an 18-18 draw with Griqualand West at Kimberley, for instance. Blasts from the rugby past such as Glenn Taylor, Con Barrell, Phil Coffin, Chresten Davis and Blair Larsen were among New Zealand’s touring party.

I don’t want to burst anyone’s 2026 bubble, but events against the Stormers this weekend are about as important as that game in Kimberley in 1996 or what Hawke’s Bay did to France at McLean Park 32 years ago.

Hype, at least where I’m concerned, is an antidote to enthusiasm. It grates me and turns me off.

The name this trip to South Africa has been given wasn’t a great start. I’m all for rugby relations with South Africa, because I think the change in our franchise competition structure has been incredibly injurious to our rugby.

Playing Australian also-rans and modest Drua and Moana Pasifika teams has hurt the All Blacks and created a culture where mediocre performances and players will suffice.

This tour provides an opportunity for our players to be tested by legitimate opposition. It’s a fact-finding mission and preparatory lesson for next year’s Rugby World Cup and nothing else.

All Blacks coach Dave Rennie and his staff need to find out which players can cut it and which ones can’t. I don’t love the fact that 44 players are on this trip but I accept, given this tour is an educational exercise, that it makes sense to find out what you can about as many people as possible.

The results will be a helpful guide for the coaches, but they won’t mean anything in the long run. That’s not just the games against the Stormers, Sharks, Bulls and Lions, but the Tests to a degree as well.

I didn’t draw up the rugby calendar, but anyone looking at it knows that it’s the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final that count. Even British & Irish Lions tours – if last year’s excursion to Australia was anything to go by – don’t mean as much as they used to.

I’d like to continue seeing progress from the All Blacks on this tour and I’d like some genuinely world-class players to reveal themselves, but I don’t need the team to win and nor would I classify it as a disaster if they didn’t.??

That’s because everything is about next year’s World Cup knockout games.

While we’re on France, I remember covering their loss to Tonga in the pool phase of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. It didn’t stop them pushing New Zealand to the absolute brink in the final.

This All Black team is a work in progress and you won’t rectify all its problems immediately. The decline in our Test team dates back a decade and the road to recovery might still be rocky.

If it includes a few defeats in South Africa over the next month, they’ll have been worth it if the team can deliver at the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

Enjoy the games. Look for development in players and signs of team cohesion. Take heed of what Rennie says and does and try and appreciate the strength and depth of South African rugby.

This is a hugely worthwhile tour, but the overall growth of these All Blacks is of greater significance than their results.