LONG READ Ireland or New Zealand? Who is really South Africa’s greatest rugby rival?

Two’s company, but three is a crowd. It’s an uncomfortable truth, but events at the weekend highlighted the new triangular rivalry at the head of the game only too well. The grand final of the URC will be played out between two teams from Ireland and South Africa, just as it was last season. The All Blacks, meanwhile, have won the tug-of-war for the services of attacking mastermind Tony Brown, at least after his current contract with the Springboks expires at the end of the 2027 World Cup.

Between the last two World Cups, South Africa and Ireland were the dominant forces in the international game, with the Boks spending 908 days at No.1 in the World Rugby rankings, and Ireland 417 days. There were only 21 days in the entire four-year cycle when one of those two was not leading the pack of chasers.

There has been plenty of extra heat between teams from the two countries at all levels ever since South Africa hoisted the Webb Ellis Cup in Paris, and Ireland won the consolation prize as the only team to beat the Boks en route to the title. Ireland has won six of the last 10 encounters between the two nations over the last dozen years, and even Rassie Erasmus admitted before the 2023 World Cup group game that ‘Ireland is our bogey team’.

Around 30,000 Irish supporters started belting out the Cranberries’ 1994 anthem ‘Zombie’, orchestrated by senior pros Peter O’Mahony and Johnny Sexton at pitch-side, in the wake of that pool stage victory, then Springbok fans co-opted the chorus with a ‘Rassie, he’s in your head’ revision after South Africa’s triumph in a final Ireland never reached. Right back at you.

‘They are singing our song’. For better or worse, it suggests a complex intimacy in the relationship, a passion powder primed to explode, ready to love or leave. As Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey explained: “We were the top two teams in the world coming into that World Cup. We beat them in the group stages, but they went on and won it, and that probably stoked the rivalry even more. It [the Zombie makeover] is not really craic either. Come on, that’s your own craic. In general, not great craic.”

There was another boil-over at last weekend’s URC semi-final between Leinster and the Stormers in Dublin, with players squabbling in the tunnel at half-time and a ferocious cleanout by Ruan Ackermann on Ronan Kelleher sanctioned by a red card. Last November, James Ryan saw red for the same shoulder-to-head challenge on Malcolm Marx in the game between Ireland and the Springboks. Both Ryan and Ackermann are selfless workers, hard-but-fair, honest-as-the-day-is-long types – but that is typical of the friction these contests now engender. Players tread closer to the edge and there is more likelihood of emotional over-spill.

The recent joust with Ireland is no more than a babbling brook compared to the roar of the river-deep, mountain-wide rivalry between the Springboks and All Blacks. Historically, it is a no-contest.

The more positive face of the love-in can be felt via a regular crossover of coaches and players. Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber cut their coaching teeth overseas in Limerick, before handing on the provincial reins to Johann van Graan, a Springboks supremo of the future. Felix Jones and Jerry Flannery are both men of Munster who have added significantly to South African I.P. in recent times.

The Westerners, along with Ulster up north, became a favoured home-from-home for Springbok forwards in Europe like B.J. Botha, Johan Muller, Duane Vermeulen, Pedrie Wannenburg, Marcell Coetzee, Jean Kleyn and R.G. Snyman. Kleyn went even further, donning the shamrock before he ever wore the leaping bok and a wreath of king proteas on his chest.

But the recent joust with Ireland is no more than a babbling brook compared to the roar of the river-deep, mountain-wide rivalry between the Springboks and All Blacks. Historically, it is a no-contest. The greatest rivalry of all dates back 105 years, to the inauguration at Carisbrook Park in Dunedin on 13 August 1921. That first series was symbolically drawn, one win apiece with the deadlock of a 0-0 tie in the deciding Test in Wellington.

It has been nip-and-tuck, achingly close between the two nations throughout rugby history.

South Africa has won four World Cups to New Zealand’s three, and new head coach Dave Rennie will be looking to even up the score in Australia next year. If Scott Robertson’s All Blacks had a failing, it lay in the uniformity of the coaching ticket, which lacked a feature name with any real experience of the game outside New Zealand. Where Razor’s staff were largely insular and parochial, Rassie’s group is cosmopolitan and international. It features two coaches from Ireland [Jones and Flannery], one from New Zealand [Brown] and a strength and conditioning overseer from Wales [Andy Edwards].

With the signing of Tony Brown after the 2027 World Cup, the All Blacks will be adding a man with intimate knowledge of the dynamic of coaching life under Erasmus, while subtracting his considerable I.P from the attacking component within the Springbok machine Rassie created. It is a proper double-whammy. Brown is widely credited with the development of South African attacking methods since the last World Cup and the rise of the young guns at No.10, like the Stormers duo of Manie Libbok and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

Ex-All Blacks’ wing turned TV pundit Jeff Wilson explained on Sky Sport’s The Breakdown the strong impression Brown had left on him during their time together as players:

“He always came up with ideas and I think the really important part about this for me though, is that what Tony does is he makes sure that you understand the fundamentals well, and you execute those well.

“He drives players to have those expectations. So, when they can execute, the skill-set is there. He doesn’t go away from that first. He builds that foundation of the fact that you need to have the handing skills, the kicking skills, the vision for the game.

“What he does do is he motivates his players, and he gives them the freedom to play, and I think that’s the big ticket for me about him; I get the sense I can pull the trigger, that ‘Brownie’ trusts me to go out and play my game.”

Over the last two World Cup cycles, it is Ireland and South Africa who have shaped the trends in the game, with Irish innovations on attack and Springbok developments on defence ruling the roost. The appointment of Brown will finally give the All Blacks the opportunity to make up some lost ground.

In the meantime, the Bulls will enjoy their chance to balance the ledger in the other great modern rivalry, when they face Leinster in an encore of the 2025 grand finale at Croke Park. Not many expected the men from the Northern Transvaal to turn the odds on the casino at Murrayfield last Saturday, but the game proved to be another object lesson in the South African facility at adapting defensive structures to cope with advanced attacking methods over the course of the game.

In the first half, the Glasgow Warriors threatened to first overlap, then overrun the Bulls’ rush defence out wide:

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 9, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 9, 2026

In both instances, No.10 Handré Pollard is off the field on a yellow card but there is a near-suicidal insistence on stepping up-field and implementing the rush defence. That played into the hands of one of Glasgow’s greatest attacking strengths – their ability to run screen plays off both their centres, No.13 Stafford McDowall and No.12 Sione Tuipulotu, on first-phase strikes. Both are exceptionally good at running straight, sitting down the key defender in front of them and transferring the ball as late as possible to the attackers ghosting in behind them.

The principal target is Bulls centre Canan Moodie, who obligingly plants straight in front of first McDowall, then Tuipulotu to give Glasgow the space they want to exploit on the outside. It is like a free donation to Scottish crowd-funding for walk-in tries.

Only a last-gasp intervention by Kurt-Lee Arendse in cover prevented a third rinse-and-repeat in the first period:

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 9, 2026

Moodie bites in, falls down and the Warriors are away and running free on the left.

The success of the Warriors on first-phase attacks changed for the worse after the break:

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 9, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 9, 2026

With Pollard back on the field, and Stedman Gans filling in for Moodie in the first example, the pattern of defence has shifted. In both clips either Gans or Moodie are keeping width and playing off rather than rushing up, and ensuring that there is plenty of time to react to the pull-back pass off either Tuipulotu or McDowall. The Bulls No.13 stays in the game rather than removing himself from the equation, and that means turnover ball via the kick or on the deck.

The Bulls won the tactical battle of South African defence versus Scottish attack in the second period and they fully deserved their passage through to the final at Croke Park:

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) June 9, 2026

Three into two won’t go, as every school-child knows only too well. Andy Farrell has signed on the dotted line to steer Ireland around for the next two World Cup cycles, and Tony Brown will return to New Zealand after coaching the Bokke to the end of 2027. The testy triangle between the Springboks, All Blacks and the men from the Emerald Isle will be alive and well for some time to come. There may be more trouble ahead. If you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat instead.