All Blacks vs Springboks: Eden Park showdown showcases the best of rugby’s great rivalry - Editorial

Editorial

Tonight at Eden Park, history beckons.

Either the All Blacks’ remarkable undefeated home-ground run is terminated – blasted by the Springboks with their Bomb Squad – or the two-time world champions are put on their backsides.

Test matches like this don’t come around often – you’re lucky to get one or two in a decade. Perhaps a handful over your lifetime.

The two top-ranked teams in the world, contenders in the most recent World Cup final, are squaring off with a stunning undefeated record elevating the tension.

For All Backs fans, the buzz around this evening’s kick off is triggering the same endorphins that surged back on October 23, 2011.

On that landmark night – an occasion of tension, toil and terror – Richie McCaw and his comrades lifted a burden from the nation’s shoulders.

We had gone too long without a World Cup title.

The 2011 team are part of the phenomenal legacy that can drive Scott Barrett and his men forward tonight at Eden Park.

McCaw’s name could well be carved into the unflattering concrete of Eden Park alongside other greats who have beaten all-comers at the ground over the past 31 years.

Carter and Nonu; Jones and Brooke; Cullen and Collins.

Many of the greatest players to ever play this great game have toiled to keep this undefeated run in place.

Fitzpatrick and Brown; Retallick and Kaino; Lomu and Wilson.

Each victory at Eden Park has been built around the unrelenting efforts of these men to burnish the legacy, to add more to the jersey than it added to them.

All Blacks captain Scott Barrett rallies his men. Photo / SmartFrame

Like those who went before, Barrett and his team can etch their names into this incredible slice of All Blacks history. (A draw would do it, boys!)

Part of the magic of tonight’s clash is that it’s not a World Cup game.

True rugby fans of all nations know that these clashes have a mystique the Webb Ellis Cup will never hold on its own. In the many decades before there were World Cups, there were already world champions - either us or them.

No tournament was needed to confirm that status.

For All Blacks fans, it’s nice to beat the Wallabies and England.

France, too – and Argentina, of course. It’s nice to beat all the teams that we come up against.

Dunking on Wales and Scotland is like satisfying a light itch. And it’s always nice to see teams like Samoa, Japan and Italy come within 30 or 40 points. That’s good for the game, right?

But victory against the Springboks – by any score and by any means necessary – is on another order of magnitude. Add in the historic significance of the 50-match undefeated Eden Park streak, and tonight’s test match is something truly special.

There would be one certain solace in defeat to the Springboks.

Just as victories against the Boks carry more meaning than triumphs over other teams, they are the worthiest opponent to which we can fall. Better to drop the record against our oldest rivals – our only true equals in the game – than to slip up against the likes of Argentina or England.

Rassie Erasmus is a brilliant coach and his side includes players of rare talent. They were deservedly champions at the two past world cups. They understand the importance of this match.

Scott Robertson must rally his men to deny these Boks one more vital scalp.