Are the All Blacks still the Springboks’ main rivals?

Rivalry may not be an entirely appropriate label for the current All Blacks tour of our country. Firstly, given that our franchise teams are no longer comprised of mainly home-grown players, and that they have for the past two years played in European competitions rather than in Super Rugby. So these days we only face the haka at world cups, and hardly know but two or three of the All Blacks regular players.

Do they have locks, props, not to mention a Bomb Squad, or a dazzling first five eigths to rival Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu? I doubt it. In my book our main rivals these days is France, whose club teams dominate the Investic Challenge Cup, with a sublime scrumhslf in Antoine Dupont, and wings with wings.

Secondly, this tour is not comparable to the tours of old, with Wednesday games designed to soften up the All Blacks, on hard fields. This tour will see the All Blacks walk over Stormers and Sharks teams minus those who are part of coach Dr Rassie Erasmus’ Bok army — the best three if not four best players in every position. The first few rounds of the so called Currie Cup resemble somewhat tepid U20 rather than the hot curry cups of old. What’s more playing only four Tests is archaic: if each win two Tests, there is no winner, and if one country wins the first three the fourth is superfluous — a dead rubber that might as well be played in Timbuktu or Vladivostok.