The Greatest Rivalry tour leaves the highveld for a football cathedral. South Africa hold the recent edge. New Zealand have made seven starting changes. Baltimore hosts the first rugby Test at M&T Bank Stadium, and neither side can treat it like an exhibition.
All Blacks vs Springboks: Baltimore Brawl for the Series
Fresh Pack, Familiar Foes, First-Time Venue
Venue: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore | Date/Time: Sunday 13 September, 7:00am AEST | Referee: Karl Dickson
The Lowdown
South Africa have barely blinked. Only two changes from last week: Damian Willemse comes in at fullback for the injured Cheslin Kolbe, and Morné van den Berg starts at scrumhalf with Cobus Reinach on the bench. Kolbe is one of six Springboks left in South Africa. The rest of the spine stays put. Eben Etzebeth, Malcolm Marx, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Siya Kolisi still run the collision game. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu keeps the 10 jersey while Manie Libbok waits among the finishers. Continuity is the selection, not a debate.
New Zealand have gone the other way. The latest All Blacks team announcement is a seven-change reset. Ardie Savea, Luke Jacobson and Quinn Tupaea are tour-ending injuries. Fabian Holland is ill. Codie Taylor returns as captain in a new front row with Ethan de Groot and Fletcher Newell. Patrick Tuipulotu starts in the second row, Tupou Vaa’i shifts to six, and Ethan Blackadder and Peter Lakai complete a rebuilt loose trio. Richie Mo’unga starts at 10. Anton Lienert-Brown partners Jordie Barrett. Josh Moorby takes the left wing. Beauden Barrett and Rieko Ioane are on the bench.
The recent ledger favours Pretoria’s lot. South Africa have won three of the last five meetings, with an average score of 28-23. The Boks have won four of their last five and sit on a two-win streak. The All Blacks have won three of five and are coming off two losses. The contest leans South Africa, but not by a blowout.
Selection talk on the New Zealand side is the familiar split: trust the caps in Taylor, the Barretts and Lienert-Brown, or go harder at form names such as Ioane, Love, Narawa, Tavatavanawai and Fineanganofo. On the Springbok side it is the same argument in reverse: keep the winning 23, or start Libbok and ask why Williams, Papier and Grobbelaar were omitted. None of that changes the job. A Springbok pack that has been winning the collisions meets an All Black side that has to find go-forward without Savea and score first.
Karl Dickson has the whistle for the first Test this ground has hosted. Stan Sport, Sky Sport and SuperSport carry it. If the rebuilt New Zealand pack cannot live in the same postcode as Marx, Etzebeth and du Toit, it will be a long morning in Queensland.
Prediction: Springboks by 7
Match Squads
All Blacks
1 Ethan de Groot (44), 2 Codie Taylor (111, captain), 3 Fletcher Newell (40), 4 Patrick Tuipulotu (58), 5 Sam Darry (11), 6 Tupou Vaa’i (50), 7 Ethan Blackadder (14), 8 Peter Lakai (13), 9 Cam Roigard (23), 10 Richie Mo’unga (56), 11 Josh Moorby (4), 12 Jordie Barrett (84), 13 Anton Lienert-Brown (93), 14 Will Jordan (60), 15 Damian McKenzie (80)
Reserves: 16 Asafo Aumua (25), 17 Xavier Numia (4), 18 Tyrel Lomax (54), 19 Josh Lord (16), 20 Wallace Sititi (22), 21 Kyle Preston (4), 22 Rieko Ioane (88), 23 Beauden Barrett (144)
Springboks
1 Ox Nché (51), 2 Malcolm Marx (92), 3 Wilco Louw (34), 4 Eben Etzebeth (145), 5 Ruan Nortjé (23), 6 Siya Kolisi (106, captain), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (101), 8 Jasper Wiese (48), 9 Morné van den Berg (9), 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (23), 11 Ethan Hooker (12), 12 Damian de Allende (102), 13 Jesse Kriel (93), 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse (34), 15 Damian Willemse (54)
Reserves: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 André Esterhuizen, 21 Cameron Hanekom, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Manie Libbok
The Springboks team is built to close the tour. New Zealand have the experience on paper to wreck that plan. One of those readings will be wrong by breakfast.
Scroll inside the box for match stats
Only 5 more hours till the other grating rivalry. Tahs-Brumbies
Go the mighty brumbies but but nsw often start a comp well then fall off
That must be why they won Super Au last year. It doesn’t last long enough for them to have the wheels fall off haha
Haha yea sr was meaning
You know they lost their first game and subsequently won the inaugural Super Aus competition?
So the exact opposite.
Force spanked them in last year’s opener before they found their way.
Here’s hoping they go well but that Brumbies backline is super strong for this level of competition
I readjusted before my comment as I was meaning in sr my bad ,
Boks 2nd half dominance…denied the AB’s the ball for long periods…
Possession was actually even according to the stats, I thought the boks had way more.
Never looked in doubt, but NZ kept challenging, so it never looked comfortable until that “late” tackle try
Bok’s always dangerous everywhere over the ball…Wallabies need to improve this across the board..
Time for another yet
They are relentless …
I hope they hit the turps between now and Perth
It is a very long…. hopefully… soul destroying flight…
Wallaby jumper in the crowd
That is time wasting
Oh dear…BOK luck on that one..
Bit sus
The intercept rule must be one of the worst in Rugby…you can slap it down with no penalty…if it goes back… penalty and yellow if it goes forward…what a dumb rule…
Rennie bringing the Wallaby discipline to the AB’s..
Wallaby’s had that before rennie but yes they have no answer to the mighty boks so under tremendous pressure that leads to poor discipline for sure
Vaa’i, as smart as LSL
Late and head on head…only a penalty…whaat…BOK luck that one…
New Zealand just hanging on
Bit of Wallaby luck for the AB’s there..
Blooming hell
Jordan playing the ball on the ground
Roigard offside
Hope he didn’t hurt his head
Quite amazing the scoreline as nz have had some poor handling errors Ritchie needs to redeem himself, Though alot of heart to stay in the fight before the half they were getting smashed in those phases.
Credit to the boks just an absolute awesome set up tough motherfarkers
Not going to be able to watch all this test as have to homekill 9 sheep in the shed
Go boks
Mama mia what a massive green wall, magnificent nz
Sa winning the aerials
Boks just too good, many self inflicted mistakes and mounga expensive
They should be more ahead with the amount of ball they’ve had. ABs still in this
Supporting his weight like I support the Tahs!!
The pace of this game is soemthing else
Yeah, I used to own a Datsun too
A red one
What a farcanal farce
Apologies team, had a big day yesterday
Have to hold the ball fellas