A South African supermarket chain is tipping the All Blacks will be eaten for breakfast by a “bomb squad” heavy Springbok team as the social media ad blitz heats up before tonight’s big game.
It comes as a Sky Sport NZ ad threw early punches when it depicted a cocky Springbok fan walking into a New Zealand barber shop ahead of the Rugby Championship clash set to take place at Auckland’s Eden Park tonight.
The South African fan informs his barber he just needs a quick trim before the “Boks run away” with the game.
“Eden Park eh, we’ll beat you anywhere,” the fan says in the ad, as a disapproving trio of All Blacks watch on while waiting for their own cuts.
In response, the barber artistically cuts a silver fern pattern into the back of the mouthy fan’s hair where he can’t notice it.
Now, South African supermarket Checkers has returned fire with its ad showing a native springbok animal casually walking into one of the chain’s stores, to the initial surprise of some other customers. A song plays with the lyrics “I’m gonna eat you up alive”.
It heads past the array of items, making a beeline to the kiwifruit stand, with the advertisement asking, “Kiwis for breakfast?”
“Give it horns boys,” the ad finishes by saying.
The ads come ahead of a hotly anticipated clash between the Rugby Championship heavyweights as both sides have shown vulnerability in recent weeks in losses to Argentina and Australia.
The match kicks off at 7.05pm tonight.
One of the talking points has been how the Springboks will use their forwards, after pulling out various styles of play during their two clashes with Australia in South Africa.
In an interview yesterday, the All Blacks revealed their starting forward pack has been scrummaging against 10 players instead of the conventional eight in preparation for the game.
Speaking to Gold Sport’s The Country Sport Breakfast on Friday morning, loosehead prop Ethan de Groot outlined the importance scrums can have in a match, but admitted it’s become a lottery in regard to which team is awarded a penalty at set-piece time.
“You just sort of [have] to work with the ref as much as you can, you know, they’ve obviously never been in a scrum and know what’s actually going on in there. You just need to try to paint the best picture possible for yourself,” the 34-test All Black said.
“Hopefully the ref isn’t giving it the John Travolta, putting his arm up too much, but yeah, hopefully we’ll have him on our side this weekend.”
He said it’s becoming harder to use a scrum as a weapon, with the way referees are allowing play to continue.
“You don’t want to lose the ref early in the game because it sort of paints a bad picture of yourselves.”
In preparation for the Springboks, de Groot said there had been some “big sessions” around scrummaging throughout the week, including eight versus 10-man scrums.
“She’s been a good old battle and [there’s been] plenty of load through the body this week.”
Since defeating the All Blacks 35-7 at Twickenham in 2023, the Springboks have used their scrum as a weapon, stacking their bench with a “bomb squad” of seven forwards and one back.
Coach Rassie Erasmus has opted for a more balanced side for the task of beating the All Blacks at Eden Park for the first time since 1937, however, with only five forwards named on the bench.
The All Blacks, meanwhile, are out to defend their 50-test unbeaten run at their “fortress”, with the streak stretching back to 1994.