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By Paul Rolton
All Blacks V South Africa Rugby Championship September 6th 2025
After going through the past 50 tests unbeaten at Eden Park (48 wins 2 draws) dating back to 1994 the expectancy of a better performance from the All Blacks after their last outing, and facing World Champions South Africa was high, and only made higher with this being the mercurial Ardie Savea’s 100th Test.
A rousing Kapa o Ponga haka, which is saved for the big games set the tone for what was to come, and whilst both sides would not be happy with their error rates the test was intense, often brutal and had both countries sitting on the edges of their seats.
An early Bok mistake, and the speed of Will Jordan to pressurize the Bok back three, lead to the All Blacks throwing to a lineout just30 metres out from their attacking goal line. An Excellent take at from Tupou Vaa’i, one of many on the night, followed by two well timed wide pass saw Beauden Barrett kick a well-placed cross field kick for debutant Emoni Narawa. A brilliant diving catch from Narawa saw him slide under the attempted tackle of fullback Willie le Roux, Narawa quickly regained his feet and headed toward the tryline. A sneaky little dummy bamboozled the Bok defence and Narawa was in for his 1st All Blacks try. A Jordie Barrett conversion had the All Blacks ahead by 7 within 3 minutes.
Only 90 seconds later Narawa’s night was over after receiving a accidental knee to his ribs in a contest for a high ball to be replaced for his 67th test by Damien McKenzie, who went to the fullback with Jordan to the right wing.
A heavy downpour of rain saw some sloppy error ridden play, including the Bok’s trying their now infamous midfield lineout before in the 17th minute the All Blacks struck again. An outstanding 50/22 kick from Beauden Barrett put his side on to attack, from the resulting lineout the All Blacks went long where Wallace Sititi collected to then place a no look in pass into the hands of who else but Jordan who shrugged of the tackle of veteran Bok hooker Malcolm Marx to dive in close to the post for his 43rd test try, and with McKenzie now doing the kicking, the All Blacks were out to 14-0.
A collapsed scrum from the All Blacks where Ethan De Groot was adjudged to have gone to ground first saw veteran Handre Pollard covert the penalty from 40 metres for the Boks to only trail 14-3 after 23 minutes. A missed Pollard penalty in the 25th minute was the last chance that South Africa looked like scoring in the first 40 minutes, whilst the All Blacks lost veteran hooker Cody Taylor to an AHI head knock review in the 30th minute. A half that saw the All Blacks dominate at lineout time, and the mighty Bok’s pack to dominate at set piece was finished with a real arm wrestle, which was just the entrée for what was to come.
The second 40 minutes was highlighted early when Reiko Ioane performed a feat of great strength saving what looked like a certain try to giant Bok loose head prop Ox Nche when he held him up over the line, a tackle that was proven latter to be one other the small differences between these two fierce rivals. A well taken 51st minute penalty restored the All Blacks 14 point lead as the game continued to resemble what it was a battle to the end between the two best test sides currently in the world.
The game was broken wide open in the 62nd minute after the Bok’s again showed their prowess at scrum time to win a penalty and take themselves into the All Blacks 22 line. After getting a defensive scrum the All Blacks pack was decimated by the Bok pack, before Marx was driven over the line by the outstanding loose forward Pieter-Steph du Toit, for Marx to score his 24th try and with an easy conversion from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu it was game on at 17-10 and 16 minutes to play.
A mistake from the kickoff from the Bok saw Referee Karl Dickson award a penalty for obstruction, one of a number of calls for the same offence made by Dickson on the night. With a real show of intent, the All Blacks kick for the corner and take the lineout, pick and go after pick and go saw Kwaga Smith, the replacement Bok loose forward sin binned for an intentional foul, and the All Blacks again kick for the lineout, looking bfor the 7 points and hopefully the final nail in the Bok’s night. A Sititi lineout win was again followed by a series of charges at the line, and after 8 phases halfback Findlay Christie release the ball to the backs, and replacement midfielder Quinn Tupaea beats two Bok defenders before crashing over beside the right hand upright, leaving McKenzie with an easy conversation for the All Blacks to go out to 24 – 10 with 13 minutes to play.
But it is never over when you are playing the World Champions, and South Africans are soon on attack again and forcing the All Blacks into conceding another penalty from a scrum collapse. A chip over the top from Damin De Allende is cleaned up by debutant Kyle Preston, the Wellington Lions’ halfback, but he is forced to concede a defensive scrum, and the Bok’s look to strike. And strike they do as their scrum is again dominant, Jesse Kriel has a crack but is held up short and the forwards go to work with de Toit to the fore, before halfback Reinach is on hand to snip wide and spot a gap on the fringes and crashes over, with the conversion from Fienberg-Mngomezulu bringing it back again back to a 7 point margin. Another penalty see’s South Africa again go to the corner and from a clean lineout win the Boks attack through the forwards towards their attacking goal line, enter Savea and in typical fashion is is over the tackled player in a blink of an eye to gain a well won turn over and with the ensuing penalty the All Blacks kick for touch.
Again South Africa refuse to give up and after disrupting the All Blacks lineout they have one last throw of the dice, and equally the All Blacks refuse to give them an inch, and drive the Bok off the ball at a breakdown and Preston delivers a dive pass to McKenzie who sends it sailing into the stand for a hard fort victory keep the Eden Park record alive.
For the Bok de Toit was again at his effective best, their pack with the engine room of veteran Eben Etzebeth and Ruan Nortje were very strong at set piece but in the end they were just no quite good enough.
The All Blacks will look back on a monumental improvement from their poor loss to Argentina, with strong performances from Tupou who had possibly his best test, disrupting Bok lineout throw’s and being the go-to guy for clean lineout wins, as well as being effective around the track with ball in hand. Supporting him upfront was replacement hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho, captain Scott Barett and tackle machine Simon Parker. Beauden Barrett again showed his class with his game management, guiding his team around the park with a cool head. Christie was effective with his box kicking, whilst McKenzie was fearless under the high ball. And then there was Savea, strong on attack and defense, a leader from the front and the master of the turnover, an outstanding performer who will be remembered long after this outstanding win for that 79th minute turnover, and his contribution to another outstanding All Black performance.
Next week Wellington presents another challenge for both sides with the Bok’s not likely to change their aerial approach, whilst the All Blacks will look at how they can improve a little at kick receipt, whilst continuing to build their all round attacked, whilst trying to sure up a poor scrum performance.