New Zealand’s players (R) perform the haka as South Africa’s line up before a semi-final match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup between South Africa and New Zealand at Twickenham Stadium, southwest London, on October 24, 2015. AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
Springboks to meet All Blacks at Eden Park in 2020
The All Blacks have released their home schedule for 2020, and will meet the Springboks in Auckland.
New Zealand’s players (R) perform the haka as South Africa’s line up before a semi-final match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup between South Africa and New Zealand at Twickenham Stadium, southwest London, on October 24, 2015. AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)
The Springboks will, for the first time in seven years, face the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland in a 2020 Rugby Championship encounter.
The southern hemisphere’s premier rugby competition returns to its full complement of fixtures – with each of the four contenders facing each other at home and away – after its previous edition was reduced to the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Springboks return to All Blacks fortress
The former world champions confirmed their home fixtures for the upcoming season, and will face the team that dethroned them on Saturday 5 September.
The match will be the first encounter between the two sides since they met in the Pool stage of the World Cup, where New Zealand emerged victorious on their way to a semi-final exit.
It’s also a return for the Boks to New Zealand soil, following their last clash in Wellington which ended in a thrilling 16-16 draw.
The Springboks have not lost to the All Blacks away since the infamous 57-0 thrashing in Albany, and have since bagged a historic 36-34 win – also at Westpac Stadium.
They now make their way back to Eden Park in what will be their first Test in Auckland since losing there in September 2013.
How the Boks have fared at Eden Park
The Springboks’ first post-isolation trip to Auckland was in 1994, when the two sides played to an 18-all draw.
The result was at the time South Africa’s best against New Zealand in four matches played since readmission.
The Boks returned to Eden Park as world champions three years later, but fell on the wrong end of a 20-point winning margin in a match that ended 55-35 to the hosts.
The Springboks’ next visit to the venue was another unhappy one, with the All Blacks emerging victorious once more in August 2001, and it would take the men in green another nine years to return, again falling on the losing side as the hosts ended a three-match losing streak against their biggest rivals in 2010.
The second edition of the Rugby Championship in 2013 saw the All Blacks making it four straight wins against the Springboks in Auckland in what is, to date, their last meeting at the venue.
Since New Zealand and South Africa played their first-ever Test at Eden Park back in 1921, it’s been the hosts who have been the dominant side, winning seven, drawing one and losing just twice.
