The 2023 Rugby World Cup Gold Medal Match will feature a rivalry that carries over a century of history, as the New Zealand All Blacks and South Africa Springboks duel for the Webb Ellis Cup on Saturday.
The teams battled for the first time during the Springboks’ tour of New Zealand and Australia in 1921. They squared off three times, with the sides each winning once before a muddy 0-0 draw in the finale.
They would take turns touring each other’s nation every several years, featuring controversy about New Zealand sending Māori players to South Africa amid South Africa’s apartheid system. The All Blacks continued to tour there but excluded Māori players, sparking New Zealanders to accuse the team of accommodating for apartheid.
New Zealanders created a mass “No Māoris, No Tour” petition before a 1960 tour to South Africa -- an effort that ultimately failed, as the All Blacks went anyway. Similar opposition of a 1970 tour led to the creation of the protest group HART — for “Halt All Racist Tours.”
The public pressure increased and eventually led New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk’s government to postpone the Springboks’ New Zealand tour in 1973, a decision the New Zealand Rugby Union protested, maintaining that politics and sports should operate independently of each other.
It came to a head in 1981, when the Springboks visited New Zealand. The All Blacks took two of three matches, which were met by widespread protests opposing all contact, including via sports, with South Africa.
The Springboks and All Blacks’ first Rugby World Cup matchup came in 1995, shortly after the apartheid ended and South Africa was welcomed back into the event. The two unbeaten teams met in the gold medal match, which the Springboks won 15-12 in extra time in Johannesburg before receiving their trophy from a Springbok jersey-clad Nelson Mandela.
It was the first of five -- soon-to-be six -- head-to-head matchups between the two rivals in Rugby World Cup history. South Africa won the bronze medal match in 1999 before New Zealand won a 2003 quarterfinal, 2015 semifinal and 2019 group stage duel.
All in all, the All Blacks hold a 62-39 advantage in 105 overall matches (with four draws) against the Springboks. The two teams are tied atop the Rugby World Cup leaderboard with three gold medals apiece -- but since that 1995 final, the teams have not met on rugby’s biggest stage.
That will change on Saturday.
How to watch the 2023 Rugby World Cup Gold Medal Match: New Zealand v. South Africa
- When: Saturday, Oct. 28
- Where: Stade de France — Saint-Denis, France
- Time: 3:00 p.m. ET
- Watch: Peacock, CNBC
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