South Africa and New Zealand first met on a Rugby field in Dunedin 101 years ago, and between them it is fair to say they have dominated the international game ever since.
Their battles traditionally have been epic and those that have challenged them, as British and Australian teams occasionally have, could never maintain the rage for long.
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The sands may be shifting a bit as the northern hemisphere nations, on the back of buckets of money, start to grab the high ground.
But that won’t matter much to Australia over the next few weeks as they line up against both the Boks and the Blacks. On the back of a bone-headed performance against Argentina in San Juan, the challenge cannot be overstated.
On the subject of shifting sands, it is also the case that the bigger challenge through the rest of the eToro Rugby Championship probably will come from South Africa, rather than Australia’s perennial nemesis across the ditch.
Indeed, the current South African team stands as one of their very best, measured against the champions of their past.
The Springboks have won three Rugby World Cups since their return to the international fold after their government’s racial segregation policies forced them into 20 years of isolation.
And there can be no doubt that the style and scope of their game has changed markedly since the 50 million or so previously banned citizens have been welcomed into the fold.
When I first saw the Springboks play in 1956 their game was centred on grinding forward play and incessant kicking.
With forwards like Johann Claassen and Chris Koch, they were all power, and it was pretty much all they needed. It was much that way for decades, when they seemed to have bigger men than any other nation, and used them to the full.
The team that flogged the All Blacks a few weeks back at Mbombela Stadium, and would have won at Johannesburg but for some pedantic refereeing, not only looks different but presents a subtlety and balance often missing in some of their great sides of the past.
Consider for instance the work of the diminutive winger of their first encounter Kurt-Lee Arendse, whose speed and vision were exemplary, to say nothing of his courage. Or the centre Luklanjo Am, whose massive break should have sealed the second Test but for an obscure referee call that affected a 10-point turnaround.
Makazole Mapimpi’s pace and strength on the wing was another factor, as was the ease with which the replacement scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse fitted into the picture.
Under their resourceful skipper Siya Kolisi the Springboks are the current world champions, and as the 2023 Rugby World Cup looms they surely will be in the mix again.
A small irony perhaps that a team to rival the current one among the best of time was in part a trigger for the end of South Africa’s apartheid system, and thus the freedom for men like Kolisi, Am and Mapimpi to do their thing.
It is a little over 50 years since the 1971 Boks under Hannes Marais dodged smoke bombs and pitch invaders to produce some of the most complete Rugby South Africa has ever exported.
The tour was a riot from start to finish. Hundreds of policemen battled the crowd at every game. In Melbourne they brought mounted police on to the field, and the horsemanship displayed as they ran down demonstrators, dropped the horse’s shoulder into the invaders and felled them, was a marvel to behold.
Union bans denied the tourists decent hotels most of the way, and forced them to travel in small planes through slow tortuous, legs across the country. The discomfort for big men was palpable.
Yet the team produced outstanding Rugby. Men like their veteran lock forward Frik du Preez, a powerful man who ran like the wind, and their back-row titans Jan Ellis and Piet Greyling were masterful.
A very young Morne du Plessis was on that tour as well, and might have won world renown but for the bans that followed.
The South Africans of 1971 toured with a discipline that brooked no complaint. Their skipper even declared it a “very nice tour”.
But the chaos that surrounded them was inescapable. In the end it played a large part in an international ban that denied South Africa further participation on the world stage.
Current players, of course, have no experience of the divisions that existed in South Africa until 1992, and the integration that has evolved since has broadened their outlook and developed their game in a myriad of ways.
As Kolisi held aloft the Webb Webb Ellis trophy in 2019 after a comprehensive dusting of England, a new summit had been reached. And there was nothing grinding about the way they did it.
A strong scrum, relentless defence and Handre Pollard’s boot kept tight control to lead 18-12 into the last 15 minutes. Then slashing tries to wingers Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe sealed the deal 32-12.
Kolbe’s was a masterful, side-stepping individual effort that beat several defenders to underline the fact that there is still a place in the game for a little man with skill, a point emphasised in South Africa over recent weeks.
In pure Rugby terms the 2019 Cup was a more significant victory than their home triumph in 1995, or the 2007 victory in France.
Their first World Cup win was built on high emotion in the early years of Nelson Mandela’s presidency, and though an extra time win against New Zealand is no mean feat, they were lucky to survive France in the semi-final.
The 2007 RWC, in which they defeated England was a dour affair in which more favoured teams made early exits.
The Boks made more convincing progress in 1999, when the boot of Jannie de Beer almost got them though an extra time semi-final against eventual winners Australia.
Their recent outings with the All Blacks will only have lifted their self-esteem, and they will be in no mood to allow Australia a repeat of the 2021 contests, in which a resurrected Quade Cooper lifted the Wallabies to two classic wins.
The Wallabies cannot allow themselves another calamity like the 48-17 shellacking they took from Argentina. Their personnel was stretched, but that is hardly an excuse for an international team that gifted Argentina seven tries.
South Africa is on the rise. The very viability of Australian Rugby into the future requires that the Wallabies rise with them.
When Kolisi was interviewed after the 2019 Cup win, he was at pains to point out that his team was diverse, with mixed backgrounds and a racial blend. This worked he said. Time has proved his point.
