Rivalry in numbers: 100 years of Boks vs All Blacks

Published on

With South Africa and New Zealand set to face off in the 100th Test between the sides, check out the key historic numbers from the game’s fiercest rivalry.

99: The All Blacks and South Africa have met 99 times in Test matches with the All Blacks winning 59, South Africa 36 and four being drawn.

57: The All Blacks’ highest score and winning margin against South Africa was achieved in the 57-0 victory at Albany in 2017.

102: Beauden Barrett has scored more points against South Africa than any other current All Black with 101. Dan Carter has scored the most of all time with 255 against South Africa.

139: Morne Steyn has scored the most points by a South African player against the All Blacks with 139.

31: Steyn holds the honour of the Springbok who’s scored the most individuals points in a match against the All Blacks – scoring all 31 in 2009’s 31-19 victory at King’s Park.

10: Christian Cullen leads the all-time All Blacks try-scoring charts against South Africa with 10. Of current All Blacks, Rieko Ioane and Ben Smith have scored the most with five against South Africa. Bryan Habana sits atop the all-time list for South Africa with eight against New Zealand.

44: The only pre-isolation player to boast more than 40 career points between the two countries is Naas Botha, who scored 44.

2: Two Springboks have scored hat-tricks against the All Blacks – Ray Mordt in 1981 and Marius Joubert in 2004. No All Blacks player has scored more than two tries in a match.

57%: Only one post-isolation Bok coach holds a positive win record against the All Blacks: Nick Mallett with 57% (four wins from seven). Peter de Villiers has the most victories over the All Blacks (five from 11).

5: The All Blacks and South Africa have met five times at the Rugby World Cup (1995, 1999, 2003, 2015 and 2019) with New Zealand recording three wins and the Boks two.

6: The All Blacks and South Africa have won six Rugby World Cup titles between them out of the nine Rugby World Cup tournaments played since 1987 (All Blacks won in 1987, 2011 and 2015; South Africa won in 1995, 2007 and 2019).

2: The Springboks’ two heaviest Test defeats in the pre- and post-isolation eras have been by the All Blacks. From 1891 to 1992, their biggest loss was the 3-20 defeat in Auckland in 1965. From 1992, it was the 57-0 massacre of Albany in 2017. That result is also the All Blacks’ biggest win over the Boks.

11: A remarkable 11 tries were scored in South Africa’s 34-36 victory over the All Blacks at Westpac Stadium in 2018. The All Blacks scored six tries (Rieko Ioane two, Jordie Barrett, Aaron Smith, Codie Taylor and Ardie Savea) to South Africa’s five (Aphiwe Dyanti two, Willie Le Roux, Malcolm Marx, Cheslin Kolbe). The boot of Handre Pollard proved the difference in the match with four conversions and a penalty compared to just two conversions by the All Blacks.

46: The most points the Springboks have scored in a Test against the All Blacks is in the 46-40 win at Ellis Park in 2000.

68: It took the All Blacks 68 years to secure their first series win on South African soil. The All Blacks failed to beat South Africa away from home in 1928, 1949, 1960, 1970 and 1976 before finally beating South Africa 2-1 in 1996.

Photo: Getty Images

Post by

SA Rugby magazine