For more than a century, the rivalry between the All Blacks and the Springboks has been the pinnacle of world rugby. The bonds grew deeper in the professional era with more regular contact through Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship.
With South African clubs integrated into European competition, a strained relationship between SARU and NZR and an ambitious external investor in the Six Nations, it would be naive in the extreme to rule out the Springboks quitting the Rugby Championship.
The days of empty threats are over – this time the prospect of a Southern Hemisphere break-up on an epic