Don’t let the noise detract from Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry

The All Blacks perform the haka before The Rugby Championship match between the New Zealand All Blacks and South Africa Springboks at Eden Park on September 06, 2025 in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images The All Blacks are back in the country. It’s the first tour in 30 years and already “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry” is heating up.

There was a wonderfulCape Town welcomefor the New Zealanders at the Cape Town stadium and, immediately, some people started calling out the “Manenberg Maoris” for not getting behind the Boks instead. It’s a sore point, but it shouldn’t be. You can’t tell people to get over the hurt and inhumanity of apartheid because you have.

But, equally, why is it even an issue? We’ve got legions of reborn Saffas in the diasporas of Australia, New Zealand, the UK and even parts of North America. They proudly don their green-and-gold jerseys, conveniently forgetting it was the prospect of the end of apartheid and an ANC government that made them emigrate in the first place.

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There are people in KwaZulu-Natal, who’ve never been further than Chatsworth, fanatical about Manchester United. South Joburg is full of die-hard English premiership fans – even our Bok skipper is mad about Liverpool. Give Siya Kolisi his due.

He went to Anfield to watch games and counts Jurgen Klopp, one of Liverpool’s best managers, as a personal friend. We can’t force people to back the Boks, irrespective what Kolisi andRassie Erasmushave done in both creating a winning culture on the field and an unprecedented nation-building campaign off the field. What we can do is recognise, as our national motto urges us: !ke e: /xarra //ke or “diverse people unite”. We can’t speak about diversity unless we allow Van der Merwes and Steenkamps to join the Brakpan Caledonian Society without a hint of derision or pity.

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