As much as I hate to use social media as a measure, there is a noticeable and growing swell of unease, confusion and resistance to the announcement that the fourth Test between the Springboks and All Blacks will be held in the US.
The Greatest Rivalry has become Make America Grubber Again.
It’s a criticism of many parts. The welfare of the players is one; a worry about the extra travel (a 12-hour, one-way flight) added to a schedule of four Tests on four consecutive weekends when both teams, the All Blacks in particular, as they will be away from home for some six weeks, will be stretched to breaking point.
The “Greatest Rivalry” is supposed to be about the rebirth of the traditional tour between these two teams. The trip to Baltimore feels like a bolt-on exhibition to what should be the rugby event of 2026.
World Rugby is the Sideshow Bob in this match. The South African Rugby Union and New Zealand Rugby need the money that comes with it, the latter more than the former. In May last year NZR reported a loss of NZ$19.5m for 2024 despite having brought in US$170m — “a record level of income” — from broadcast and sponsorship rights.
A portion of that record income came from a settlement reached with Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos, which terminated their six-year sponsorship deal with the All Blacks and Silver Ferns early. Ineos was said to be paying NZR NZ$21m a year.
NZR reported losses of NZ$47m in 2022 and NZ$8.9m for 2023. The CEO at the time, Mark Robinson, said the financial model was “not sustainable” with spectator numbers dwindling and high players’ wages.
Saru was in a “state of technical insolvency” in 2024 with a record loss of R95m but is predicting a R100m profit for 2025 with new sponsors in FNB and Pick n Pay and match revenue on the up.
Playing in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and European Professional Club Rugby competitions cost R124m in 2024, said Saru CEO Rian Oberholzer last year. “We have been investing in the long-term future of South African rugby to become full members of the URC for the best part of eight years,” Oberholzer said.
“It has come at a significant cost to the sport, but there is no doubt it has been the right thing to do. Once we fulfil certain membership obligations this year, we will begin to reap the on- and off-field rewards of such investment.”
Money, money, money
Oberholzer has been blunt about the reasons for playing in Baltimore. In 2024 he said one of the greatest rivalry matches would be a “money game”. The New Zealand Herald has guesstimated NZR will make NZ$7m (R66m) from the game, while The Daily Maverick reckons the “projected revenue (for Saru) could be as much as R100m more than it would have generated in South Africa — and that’s excluding a handsome fee World Rugby is paying Saru and NZR to take a game to the US”.
Money, money, money … It doesn’t sit just right as a sports fan; it feels off that the first proper tour by the All Blacks since 1996 could be decided in Baltimore.
The guff from World Rugby about spreading the game to the US is marketing double-speak on repeat. Cracking the US market, the so-called sleeping giant, is a World Rugby fantasy they have been chasing for years.
World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin was very excited: “There are few bigger rivalries [that’s why it is called the ‘Greatest Rivalry’, Alan. Duh.] than New Zealand vs South Africa, and to be able to showcase the best of our sport in Baltimore, one of 27 super-engaged cities and regions in the Rugby World Cup hosting process, is an exciting prospect, inspiring more sports fans in the US to fall in love with rugby.”
Prospect. Fall in love. Super-engaged. Showcase. All this in a nation at war with itself, where citizens are murdered in the street, children are dragged out of schools and into detention, and many African countries are on a banned list with a president on the grift. Money over morality. Baltimore over Bloem.
The last game of the Greatest Rivalry has the feel of a Harlem Globetrotters tour to it, a Sideshow Bob to Make America Grubber Again.
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