South Africans and Kiwis were enthused by the news this week that a sense of normality will be restored to the Rugby Championship this year. Boy, it needs it.
The main cause for the upbeat sentiment was the confirmation that the All Blacks will be playing here for the first time since the hosts suffered a heartbreaking 32-30 loss at Loftus Versfeld in 2018.
The match will be remembered for the superb opening 70-odd minutes by the Springboks before New Zealand rallied in the closing stages to snatch an improbable win.
That heartbreak followed another soul-destroying result from the year before when the back-to-wall Boks lost by a point at Newlands. That defeat was particularly deflating considering the Springboks conceded 57 points to the same team in Durban the week before.
The defeat at Newlands, however, kick-started a sequence that stretches seven Tests in which the Springboks have reminded the All Blacks that their rivalry is not just part of rugby folklore. When they now line up against the old foe they have an equal chance of winning.
The pandemic, however, arrived at an inopportune time not just for SA/Kiwi hostilities but for Rugby Championship. Just as SA and New Zealand were restoring their rivalry, which helped elevate the tournament, their progress was stunted.
SA did not compete in the southern hemisphere tournament in 2020, before returning to last year’s event, which was again wholly staged in Australia.
Tournament organisers will also be thrilled that the two star attractions in the Rugby Championship can do battle in each other’s backyard.
With travel restrictions in New Zealand gradually being eased it will come as huge relief for their respective sets of fans, and already a flutter of Kiwis are preparing to make the trip to Mbombela Stadium and Ellis Park in August.
After playing their last three Tests in Yokohama, Townsville and Gold Coast the two superpowers can go toe-to-toe on each other’s soil again.
Tournament organisers will also be thrilled that the two star attractions in the Rugby Championship can do battle in each other’s backyard.
Normality is certainly needed for the competition. It had lost much of its lustre during the pandemic, while some may argue the rot set in before.
With the Rugby Championship operating at diminished capacity, the lights in the north flickered ever brighter.
It was soon followed by the refrain from Europe that the Six Nations was the best championship in rugby and it was difficult to argue with the Rugby Championship in semi limbo.
The Six Nations certainly has a lot going for it. It is played in territories that are easily accessed by the fans of the different combats, while it is marketed and hyped to the max.
The standard and level of competitiveness is also from the top drawer, except perhaps for Italy, who have become the deadweight in the tournament.
Despite Italy, results aren’t as easy to predict as they were perhaps four years ago, especially now that Scotland are more consistently playing themselves into the reckoning.
The tournament is likely to continue to soar commercially, especially after CVC Equity Partners took up a one-seventh share in Six Nations Rugby last year.
Sanzaar, the organisers of rugby in the southern hemisphere, will hope they too can start making some commercial gains and mitigate the losses they suffered during the last two years.
The Springboks hosting the All Blacks on home soil in August will put them on that path, especially if Mbombela Stadium and Ellis Park are allowed to fill up.
