All Blacks legend ‘confident’ for Springboks series despite the ‘million people’ in Rassie Erasmus’ squad
Springboks and All Blacks going head-to-head, and South Africa boss Rassie Erasmus.
Ex-All Blacks star Frank Bunce says that his belief has returned in the national team following the start of Dave Rennie’s tenure as they prepare for a huge Test series with the Springboks.
Negativity has emanated around rugby in New Zealand since the 2023 Rugby World Cup following mixed results and performances under Scott Robertson in 2024 and 2025.
Robertson was then sacked at the start of this year and was replaced by Rennie, who led them to three successive victories in the Nations Championship.
Impressive start under Rennie
They defeated France, Italy and Ireland in July, with the latter arguably their most complete performance for over two years.
The new All Blacks boss has looked to bring back positivity with ‘optimism’ the watchword for the 62-year-old.
Although the Springboks, who they will face in four Tests – three of those in South Africa – present a huge challenge, Bunce believes that they can overcome the back-to-back world champions.
“I don’t think I’ve been this excited for ages and I really like the team they’ve named. I’ve got confidence now,” he told the GBRANZ podcast.
“It’s going to be as hard as it always is, if not a little bit harder, just because of the sport South African rugby is in at the moment.”
Rassie Erasmus‘ South Africa are undoubtedly the favourites going into the Test series and Bunce has seen first-hand how positive they are about rugby in the country.
The head coach has built significant depth in the squad and the former All Blacks centre is aware of the threat they will pose.
“They’re supremely confident, everything’s going right for them, they’ve got a million people in Rassie’s squad,” he said.
“I was just recently over there and they were talking about the good space rugby is in, in South Africa, but we were talking about the size.”
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Bunce was also shocked to hear about another sizeable unit coming through the system. Although he did not name the individual, the second-row is “bigger than Eben Etzebeth”, according to the 64-year-old.
‘Where does it end?’
“Apparently, there’s some young 20-year-old kid who’s bigger than Etzebeth, even now, that’s come onto the radar,” he said.
“You think, where does it stop? Where does it end?”
That youngster may have to wait a couple of years to usurp Etzebeth, however, with the Springboks’ record cap holder remaining a world-class player.
The lock makes his comeback from injury in South Africa’s clash against Argentina and, if he comes through that unscathed, could well line up against the All Blacks for the first Test in Johannesburg.
But Bunce maintains that whoever Erasmus selects, Rennie has the quality in his side to overcome the Boks in the Republic.
“We’re in a good spot, we’re coming back into it. Once we get our confidence, we settle and we get into our rhythm, we can beat anyone,” he added.