Dan Biggar: What All Blacks must do to beat the Springboks as Wales great makes bold Greatest Rivalry prediction
All Blacks scrum-half Cam Roigard is hauled in by Springboks counterpart Cobus Reinach and ex-Wales and Lions fly-half Dan Biggar (inset).
Dan Biggar has predicted that the Greatest Rivalry series between the Springboks and All Blacks will be a “clash of styles in attack and defence”.
New Zealand will head out to South Africa next month on ‘Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’ tour with the All Blacks taking on all four of the United Rugby Championship sides ahead of three clashes with the Springboks in Johannesburg (twice) and Cape Town, before Baltimore hosts the fourth and final Test on September 12.
South Africa and New Zealand have dominated the rugby world for several decades, with them splitting the last four World Cups between them (New Zealand 2011 and 2015, South Africa 2019 and 2023) as well as the last nine Rugby Championships (New Zealand six, South Africa three), but the Springboks have held the upper hand in their recent head-to-head meetings.
Springboks in fine form against the All Blacks
Under the guidance of Rassie Erasmus, the Boks have won five of their past six meetings against the All Blacks – a run which includes the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, and they condemned the men in black to their heaviest-ever defeat in Wellington last year.
Earlier this year, New Zealand Rugby announced that Dave Rennie would take over the All Blacks’ coaching reins from Scott Robertson, who was axed from the position in January.
Rennie made a solid start to his reign as the men in black’s coach and they recently secured Nations Championship victories over France (34-32), Italy (47-17) and Ireland (40-21).
Under Rennie’s mentorship, the All Blacks have reverted to an exciting style of play in which they place a huge emphasis on retaining ball possession and ex-Wales and British & Irish Lions fly-half Biggar believes their new game-plan puts them on a collision course with the Springboks’ approach to the game.
“The next big, big test for this All Blacks team will be four matches against the back-to-back world champions and the best team in the world by a country mile at the minute, the Springboks,” he said on Biggar Thinking: Rugby Analysis.
“How will this attack in shape, with all the passes, the carries, the two, three playmakers, match up against the best team in the world and a team who are just looking to come up with line speed, shut that down.
‘A clash of styles in attack and defence’
“I suppose it’s a clash of styles in attack and defence. You’ve got the Springboks who are looking to just get the ball back as quickly as possible and ask teams to almost give the ball back to them through kicking and the All Blacks who are looking to just dominate the ball, wait for an error in defence, wait for a full-back to rush up and put a little kick in behind and just be patient with the ball.”
During Robertson’s tenure as head coach, New Zealand executed plenty of kicks for territory while they prefer to run the ball more since Rennie took charge of the team.
Biggar feels the All Blacks might have to change their style slightly if they want to get the better of the Springboks and suggested that the men in black have a similar approach to Scotland’s against the Boks in a recent Nations Championship clash which the world champions eventually won 42-28.
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“So, I think it’s matching up to be perfect for how the Springboks defend, they want the ball back quickly and how the All Blacks attack, they don’t want to give it back to you quickly, they want to test you for 16, 17 phases,” he explained.
“It’s really interesting to see how this matches up. If the All Blacks don’t win enough collisions against the Springboks and they continue to just try and play pass, pass, pass, it could be really difficult.
“If they can move the point of contact, if they can kind of move this big Springbok pack around a little bit like what Scotland did, then they’ve got excellent players to be able to cause them problems.
“But you’d still fancy the Springboks (who) are a dominant force in world rugby. But this All Blacks team is going to test them in ways that they haven’t experienced in the last three to four games.
“It’s going to be a superb rivalry, it’s going to be four amazing matches and almost a clash of styles of how they want to play.”