The All Blacks profited from the inaccuracy of the Springboks during their long periods of physical and territorial dominance to score an upset 33-16 win at Ellis Park that sees them take a 1-0 lead as the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series heads to Cape Town next week.
If this tour is about the All Blacks discovering what is required to beat the world champion Boks in what is a likely quarterfinal in next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia, they found it in this first game of the four- match rubber.
Just be resilient when under physical pressure and hold on as best as you can, rely on a bit of luck and the opposition being inaccurate, and make telling use of the ball when you get a chance to use and probe for space.
✅✅✅✅
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 22, 2026
The All Blacks extend their unbeaten streak to four on SA soil with a win in the opening Test 💪🇳🇿#SSRugby | #RugbysGreatestRivalry | @TigerWheelnTyre pic.twitter.com/SjBQx2BEO0
That’s really it in a nutshell. At halftime, the Boks looked winners for all money, and it was easy to speculate that given the massive physical advantage the hosts had enjoyed in the first half, that another annihilation of New Zealand like the 43-10 in Wellington last year was on the cards.
The All Blacks had been fortunate to get to halftime with the Boks just one point ahead, with Malcolm Marx uncharacteristically dropping the ball over the line when the Boks drove over the line for a score that could have given them an eight point lead had it been dotted down.
With the Boks destroying the All Blacks in the scrums and driving them into the ground when the forwards had ball in hand, and winning all the collisions, had that try been scored, the Boks probably would have won this game comfortably.
Heading into the second half, they also had opportunities that were not taken, and might rue their decision to opt for three consecutive scrums when they had a sequence of scrum penalties awarded under the All Black posts when a three pointer would have brought the scores level.
That was after a try from New Zealand lock Fabian Holland, which might have been considered fortuitous but was the product of the kind of errors that the Boks kept making to keep their opponents in the game, dotted down when a sloppy Grant Williams attempted clearance was charged down.
That saw the All Blacks take the lead after Cheslin Kolbe had extended the Bok lead to four points six minutes after halftime.
SMART MONEY STILL ON BOKS AFTER HOLLAND'S GIFT TRY
But even when that third All Black try was scored, the smart money would still have been on the Boks to win given their physical ascendancy.
They piled back onto attack, but with a little bit of help from the Boks themselves, the All Blacks were bravely able to defend wave after wave of Bok assault.
If the Boks could be faulted in that period, it was for the way they at times appeared to switch to a mode where they looked like they were trying to play the Kiwis at their own quicker paced game.
Surely though the New Zealand dam wall would break, and they had replacements at loosehead prop and lock by that point as both Ethan de Groot and Josh Lord were injured in the same movement in the closing stages of the first half.
But it didn’t, let it be said too with a little help from the match officials, who should probably have reached into the pocket as the Kiwis conceded penalty after penalty in their own half.
Make no mistake, there was a lot of cynical infringing.
HOSTS HAD THEMSELVES TO BLAME
The Boks though also only have themselves to blame. They were inaccurate and should probably have kicked for posts to at least restore parity before pressing on at that point.
They could have taken the influence of the officials out of the game had they just been more accurate and clinical.
Instead it was the All Blacks who were clinical, as they needed to be if they were to have any chance of winning this game.
And by the end of it, the All Blacks were invigorated, no doubt lifted by being in a lead that was gifted to them by that Holland try, and when referee Carley finally went to his pocket to brandish a yellow card it was two South Africans, first Marco van Staden, and then Cobus Reinach, who copped it.
ENDED WITH 13 MEN
When the Boks were trailing by 10 points going into the last 10 minutes they still had a chance of coming back, as they did here in a similar situation two years ago in a Rugby Championship game.
Once they lost two players and were forced to finish with 13 men, the game was gone.
Flanker Luke Jacobson scored one of the All Black tries late on that made sure of the win for the Kiwis.
The All Blacks make it happen on the set-piece 👏
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 22, 2026
Luke Jacobson gets their fourth of the night 🇳🇿💥
📺 Stream #RugbysGreatestRivalry on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/H6IDMstM0z
The 33-16 margin flattered the Kiwis but the reality is you can’t argue against five tries to one, which was the try count on the day, with four of those tries converted.
The Boks had taken the early lead through a fourth minute Kolbe penalty but the All Blacks quickly sounded a warning when, in an opening part of the game where it appeared obvious the Boks were winning the collisions, they let the ball do the work to send Will Jordan in at the corner flag.
That was the one conversion that was missed by All Black flyhalf Ruben Love, but the All Blacks were ahead by two.
That was quickly cancelled out when big Andre Esterhuizen easily bumped off the ineffectual tackling attempt of Josh Moorby to cross for what was to prove the only Bok try. Esterhuizen was on because of an early injury to wing Kurt-Lee Arendse.
Ganda-ganda 🚜🔥
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 22, 2026
André Esterhuizen brings major impact off the bench ⚡
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ALL BLACKS HAVE GREAT ATTACKING SKILL AND NOUS
The All Blacks were being starved of possession and were losing the collisions but they managed to find space with their wonderful attacking skill and nous to put in Moorby for a try that atoned for his earlier missed tackle.
Love’s conversion made it 12-10 to New Zealand, but Kolbe kicked a penalty to put the Boks back in the lead at 13-12 after 25 minutes.
And that was how it stayed until halftime, and if the Boks are to look back at the period where they lost this match, that 15 minutes was it.
They were all over New Zealand at that point, they crushed their scrum even they themselves only finally got a scrum put in in the 44th minute, and forced penalties at that phase at will.
After De Groot was injured and replaced by George Bower the All Blacks stabilised their scrum a bit, only for it to fall apart again as the third quarter drew on.
The Boks went for the crowd pleaser by calling successive scrums at attacking penalties as the Ellis Park supporters shouted “scrum, scrum, scrum” but finally it was the Kiwis who forced a scrum penalty to save them and render all the effort as in vain.
That really was effectively the game, with the All Blacks breaking free to transfer pressure not long after that, and then with the help of the cards that the Boks conceded, it was really all the All Blacks after that.
70' Marco van Staden🟨
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) August 22, 2026
72' Cobus Reinach 🟨
The Springboks end the first Test with 13 men on the field 👀🇿🇦#SSRugby | #RugbysGreatestRivalry pic.twitter.com/r132lHLqvW
The All Blacks were even calling scrums at the end, when Van Staden was in the bin. They ended the game as we are so used to seeing the Boks doing - completely on top.
SCORES
New Zealand 33 - Tries: Will Jordan (2), Josh Moorby, Fabian Holland and Luke Jacobson; Conversions: Ruben Love 4.
South Africa 16 - Try: Andre Esterhuizen; Conversion: Cheslin Kolbe; Penalties: Cheslin Kolbe 3.