‘Thanks for abandoning your best friends’ – Ex-Wallaby’s sarcastic response to All Blacks’ tour to South Africa
All Blacks back Rieko Ioane during the haka and an inset of ex-Wallaby Greg Martin.
Former Wallaby Greg Martin has wished the All Blacks good luck for their Greatest Rivalry tour to South Africa next year, but has not passed up the opportunity to take a dig at the New Zealanders.
Following the announcement of SANZAAR’s global calendar through to 2030 on Thursday, SA Rugby and NZ Rugby announced that the inaugural tour would be hosted in South Africa next year, with the All Blacks playing the Springboks in a four-Test series and will face off against the country’s United Rugby Championship teams.
“I didn’t think this would ever happen again”
However, Argentina and Australia are yet to confirm what they will be up to when the tour takes place during August and September next year, with the two nations left in limbo.
Despite the Wallabies being left out of the loop, Martin is still excited by the prospect of the old-school traditional tour, having watched the Cavaliers tour to South Africa in his youth.
“This is amazing. I didn’t think this would ever happen again, but money obviously talks, because they’ve gone, ‘Hold on, we are number one and two in the world, we might as well play as often as possible,'” he said on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin.
“The whole world will be watching because that’s what the whole world wants to see. I know Ireland, you’re good, but there is nothing like New Zealand versus South Africa.
“God, I remember the Cavaliers tour back in 1986, even that was incredible. I think that was one of my highlights of my early part of my 20s watching that, but here we are, it’s happening again.
“It’s a different world now. This is great, this is a different Springboks team, good luck playing them, I’d hate to play them four weeks in a row. You’ll need about three teams.”
But Martin did lash out at New Zealand, albeit tongue-in-cheek, adding: “Thanks for abandoning your best friends.
“Oh, we love hanging around with you, ‘Oh wait, there’s money, here we go!'”
Rassie Erasmus’ verdict on Springboks featuring in midweek games against the All Blacks
Rassie wary of losing the Rugby Championship
While Martin’s comments were clearly sarcastic and in good nature, Bok head coach Rassie Erasmus is wary of losing the Rugby Championship and would hate if SA Rugby lost their partners.
“If you play New Zealand four times in a row I’m not sure you lose a lot by not playing Australia and Argentina,” he said.
“But I would hate it if Argentina or Australia were just to be thrown away. I would personally not like it. [Not playing against those nations] will be the sad part, but the good part will be that we are playing against a team that’s been ruling world rugby for the last 20 years.
“It’s only the last four or five years that we managed to catch up with them. So, rugby wise, I can’t see many negatives. But, hell, we don’t want to drop our partners who have looked well after us in the past.”