Michael Cheika: Gravitational shift on cards when All Blacks host Springboks

Veteran international coach Michael Cheika has labelled the upcoming Rugby Championship games between New Zealand and South Africa “pivotal” for the All Blacks.

Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks have had the upper hand in the rivalry since 2023’s Rugby World Cup warm-up clash at Twickenham, having now carved out a four-game win streak with the ensuing Rugby World Cup final and last year’s two-Test Rugby Championship series.

With last year’s results, the All Blacks surrendered the Freedom Cup for the first time since 2010, having maintained it throughout the entirety of South Africa’s reign as world champions until then.

Results show the scales of power tipping further in the Springboks’ favour, so Cheika says now is the time for the men in black to make their statement.

“I feel like it’s a really pivotal series for New Zealand against South Africa, those two matches in the championship,” Cheika told Martin Devlin on DSPN.

“They’re at home, South Africa have had the domination on everyone over these last few years. I think it’s a real opportunity for New Zealand, on home soil, to take them on; take them on in two ways.

“Not just in the New Zealand way of playing footy, because that’s a very different style to the South African way, but also a little bit in their own way, take them on in the physicality stakes.

“Because that platform, that will give them the confidence, perhaps then to go on and say right, off the back of this – and I think there’s a longer series next year, and then you’ll come back around them in the 2027 World Cup – to say ‘we’ve got their number’.

“So, I think it’s going to be an important series for them both. The two matches this year, and also the bigger series they’ll be playing next year.”

While the first of the four-game winning run saw the Boks dismantle the Kiwis to the tune of 35-7, the biggest margin of victory ever claimed over the All Blacks, the three games since have each been nail-biters, and none have been played on New Zealand soil.

Along with the confidence, momentum and silverware at stake, there is a 31-year undefeated run at Eden Park on the line in game one.

Cheika, enjoying a brief window of fandom while in between jobs, said the series will be immense, also speaking on the origins of his respect for his Trans-Tasman neighbours.

“It’s going to be huge. I love watching New Zealand play, I hate playing against them just quietly.

“As much as I’ve had a battle with them over the years, on and off the field, I’ve got a huge respect for the way they play the game and always have. From when I started watching rugby later in school, and got a chance to play against them in ’88, that long ago. They came and played against our club team, the first game of the tour.”