In The Spotlight
With Rugby Championship win, Springboks are making their case for greatness
In this new series, The Straits Times highlights the standout players or teams to watch in the world of sport. Today, we focus on the South Africa national rugby team and their run of success.
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South Africa's Siya Kolisi holding up the Rugby Championship trophy with his teammates after beating Argentina 29-27 at Twickenham in London on Oct 4, 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
- The Springboks are rivalling the All Blacks as rugby's best-ever team, securing their second consecutive Rugby Championship in 2025 after winning the 2019 and 2023 World Cups.
- South Africa's success in World Cup finals and recent Rugby Championship titles demonstrate a focus on winning when it matters most, despite the All Blacks' superior overall record.
- Siya Kolisi credits coach Rassie Erasmus for instilling a winning mentality; Handre Pollard stresses the need for consistent success between World Cups to be the greatest.
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The All Blacks are to rugby lore what Brazil’s Selecao are to football, but the Springboks are increasingly building the resume to put forth their case as the sport’s greatest team.
After usurping New Zealand’s mantle as the Rugby World Cup’s most successful team with their fourth title and second in succession in 2023, the current iteration of the Springboks are entering the conversation of the sport’s greatest team after winning their consecutive Rugby Championship on Oct 4.
That honour is largely bestowed on the early- to mid-2010s edition of the All Blacks, who won back-to-back World Cups in 2011 and 2015 and won five of the seven Rugby Championships from 2010 to 2016.
From 2010 to 2016, New Zealand lost just seven of 94 Tests, setting a joint-world record of 18 straight Tier I Test match wins from 2015 to 2016. They also went on a 22-match unbeaten run from 2013 to 2014. Only once from 2010 to 2016 was the accolade of the world’s best player not won by an All Black, with the gong alternating between Richie McCaw, Dan Carter (twice), Kieran Read, Brodie Retallick and Beauden Barrett.
But they appear to have a challenger in the Springboks circa 2019 to present.
Former Wallabies centre Morgan Turinui said on Stan Sports: “This Boks team look like they’re going to win a lot in between. I’m just trying to think of which teams throughout history could beat this team?”
Having already matched the All Blacks’ feat of consecutive world titles in 2019 and 2023, the world No. 1 South Africa side have followed up their most recent triumph in France by winning back-to-back Southern Hemisphere titles for the first time at Twickenham on Oct 4, pipping the All Blacks on points difference.
South Africa do not have anything like New Zealand’s record when it comes to unbeaten runs or winning percentages but where they make their case is triumphing when it matters most.
They have not lost any of their four World Cup finals. The All Blacks have reached five finals but lost two of them. Two of New Zealand’s three triumphs have come on home soil, while all but one of South Africa’s titles were achieved on different continents, including their last two.
South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard admitted on the For The Love Of Rugby podcast last October that the Springboks have ambitions of being the best side ever, but suggested that they need to be better between World Cups.
Following up their success in the 2023 global showpiece with Rugby Championship wins in 2024 and 2025 suggests they are headed in the right direction.
“We want to be and we’re going to try our very, very best, but that 2011 to 2015 All Blacks team is still the best team ever,” he said.
“The thing is that we need consistent success. We’ve done well in the World Cups and we speak about it in our group, it’s about consistently winning Rugby Championships between World Cups now, winning series...
“That’s the kind of stuff which makes you really one of, if not the greatest team ever. We’ve still got a little bit to go there, I feel.”
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi paid tribute to coach Rassie Erasmus for changing his team’s mindset.
Speaking after the 29-27 win over Argentina
“Now, no matter how tough it is in the game, we know how to win, we know how to fight, we know how to dig deep.
“The way Rassie came in from the beginning, it was the mentality – he just changed how we thought and how he told us to put ourselves aside and realise that the Springboks are a big team and we need to get back to where we need to be.”
Erasmus highlighted that “we used close to 47 players and I’d love to have given more chances”.
Flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit is the reigning World Rugby Men’s 15s Player of the Year, with two of the other three finalists his international teammates.
“This Springboks team is one of the great teams of the modern era, I feel. They have won a couple of World Cups, they have a huge squad with massive depth in every position – their B team is not too far off their A team,” former All Black prop Wyatt Crockett, who played for New Zealand from 2009 to 2017, told SENZ Radio.
Erasmus once remarked that he would “rather win the World Cup than sit at an 85 per cent win rate”. With their current depth, he might not have to choose between the two.
