Rassie Erasmus is not playing around…

He wants to end this.

The final round of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry is upon us and sees the Boks travel to Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States to finally finish off the All Blacks.

Baltimore is more famous for being the city where the United States national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, was written than for having any sort of rugby culture.

Which, incidentally, it does not.

Fortunately, the game will be played at M&T Bank Stadium, home of NFL team the Baltimore Ravens, on a grass pitch.

But why Baltimore?

Well, there’s a little thing called the US dollar…

And err…

World Rugby is paying them to take the game to the United States to ostensibly grow the game in a developing rugby ecosystem.

The only problem is…

That developing rugby ecosystem has taken several steps backwards in recent years.

Major League Rugby was launched in 2018 with seven teams, eventually growing to an all-time high of 13 teams in 2022.

However, at the culmination of the 2025 season, several teams were axed, reducing the league to six teams in total.

Hardly thriving, right?

But World Rugby is committed to growing the game in the US and awarded them both the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup and the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

And both NZR and SARU need to balance the books.

And that’s why we find ourselves with the Springboks taking on the All Blacks in the US of A this weekend.

I will say it now…

I think the Boks will be comfortable winners this weekend.

And I have my reasons…

When I watched the New Zealand post-match press conference, Dave Rennie and stand-in captain Luke Jacobson looked very deflated to me.

I get the feeling they feel like this tournament is slipping away from them.

They’ve been on the road for eight or so weeks, injuries are starting to take their toll, and the Springboks are getting better every week.

Rassie named an almost unchanged team for the fourth game in a row.

It is clear he is looking for the edge that comes with continuity.

But if you’ve ever listened to a Rassie Erasmus press conference, you’ll know they track how many minutes each of the players has played for both the Boks and the opposition.

So to name essentially the same team over and over again, he no doubt feels they are still fresh enough compared to the opposition.

Rennie has said he will make changes.

I do wonder how strong the depth of the All Blacks really is when you consider the close games they had against the Stormers and Lions.

So, my call is…

We will win.

And win comfortably.

But hey, I could be wrong!

Looking beyond the game this weekend, we do have the one-off Test against the Wallabies in late September coming up.

Rassie has already earmarked players such as Handré Pollard, who will be in contention for that match.

I would imagine there will be wholesale changes for that game and a chance to give some of the Boks who’ve sat on the sidelines an opportunity to play.

There’s then a decent break throughout October with no Springbok fixtures.

Fortunately, the URC will be back to entertain us.

But what have we learnt from this series against the All Blacks?

Well, for starters, we’ve probably learnt a lot more about them than they have about us.

Everyone knows how the Boks play, but until recently we didn’t really know what a Dave Rennie All Blacks team could do.

And despite us going up 2-1 in this series, the All Blacks are very, very dangerous.

Rassie has said many times this is a different team to the one they have faced in recent years under Scott Robertson.

And they are very good.

Dave Rennie believes there is not much between these two sides.

I’ve seen some pundits say that if the Kiwis can get themselves a proper physical tight five, they could be a real match for the Boks.

But it remains to be seen whether they can do that before the Rugby World Cup in Australia next year.

There will be a full Rugby Championship next year, which means at least two more games against the All Blacks, besides this weekend, to test ourselves against them before we are fated to meet them in the quarter-finals next year.

But I can tell you this…

Rassie is not playing around.

He will want to keep this momentum we’ve built over the All Blacks going for a while yet.

And on Saturday we have the next battle…

In Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.

Until next time.

Rudi
Aussieboks