Saturday's 106th showdown between gigantic rivals New Zealand and South Africa has elevated rugby's biggest game — if that was at all possible — to a potential do-you-remember-where-you-were moment for everyone who follows the sport, young or old, from New Zealand, South Africa or elsewhere.
Rugby history will be made on Saturday, no matter what, with one of the World Cup's joint-most successful teams winning a record fourth title, a massive extra motivator in a contest that never, ever needs one. There are a line of other big All Blacks and Springboks names heading into, or toward, retirement in an era-ending game for both squads. They will finish against the team they probably dreamed as kids of beating right here, in a Rugby World Cup final.
New Zealand has the historic head-to-head superiority and has also won the last three of their five Rugby World Cup meetings. South Africa has won all three finals it has played in. The six games between them since rugby returned properly after the COVID-19 pandemic have been shared 3-3. “I remember it very well,” Springboks coach Nienaber said this week. “I remember after the victory we were all in the streets.” Even with the weight of '95, Nienaber said this final is “probably the biggest rugby game there has ever been.”
The other game to take into account is the most recent, a pre-World Cup warmup that threw up a record 35-7 win for the Springboks — the All Blacks' worst defeat ever, and a bolt out of the blue. That set New Zealand, rugby's most successful team by the volume of its wins over 120 years, on a new, unfamiliar path at this World Cup; one of vindication, redemption.
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