All Blacks v Springboks: Why we need to beat the Boks in RWC final for a complete set of titles

When the All Blacks play the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup final on Sunday morning, it will be the latest instalment in the sport’s biggest battle.

Victory this weekend against the Springboks would surely deliver the most remarkable World Cup title secured by the All Blacks – and probably their greatest.

Before the Rugby World Cup existed, the informal title of rugby world champion sat squarely on the shoulders of whomever of the All Blacks or Springboks had last beaten the other. And, yes, they held it more often than we did.

We certainly need victory over the Boks in the sport’s greatest contest to complete our set of titles: we won the first (1987), eventually claimed our second (2011), and we secured back-to-back and offshore titles (2015) to finally get the monkey off our back.

Whichever nation wins on Sunday will be the first to have bagged four men’s Rugby World Cup titles.

The glow of a title won from the Boks in a final will add to the shine of all those other trophies. For traditionalists, there’s something a little hollow about winning a title without defeating your greatest foe; we haven’t really won the title of world champions until we’ve tamed the Boks in the final.

For this match is bigger than a mere Rugby World Cup title: this is rugby’s grandest clash, the latest instalment of a ruck that started in 1921 (we beat them that day in Dunedin, 13-5). Along the way, there have been epic tours, violent protests, Olympic boycotts and brutal clashes that defined rugby and made the sport great.

The one constant over more than a century has been the intensity of the clash; whatever form the teams are in, this match-up brings out the best in rugby’s greatest combatants. It’s a rare day when one can truly humble the other.

If Ian Foster guides his team to glory, he will have done so with a squad less endowed with talent than the All Blacks coaches who went before him. His All Blacks squad will be more aware of their failings than any that went before.

It’s no disrespect to Foster’s fine team to suggest the champion All Blacks sides that went before them possessed a greater supply of talent. In 1987, young stars like Michael Jones and John Kirwan played the game in a manner no other nation could match, and quickly came to be regarded as the best to ever play in their positions.

The 2011 and 2015 vintages also featured many of the best players ever in their ranks: the likes of Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu and Aaron Smith elevating the execution of their craft to new heights.

Of today’s players, Ardie Savea is knocking on the door of the pantheon of greatness, while many of the other stars – Smith, Beauden Barrett, and locks Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick – could be fairly said to be past their peaks.

If the All Blacks do fall short in the final, they have already proved their doubters wrong by performing so well and overcoming adversity.

Where Kiwis once might have carried antipathy with regard to the Boks (it’s not our fault, we were raised that way), it’s hard to hate the current team. Siya Kolisi’s men play for their communities at home. They play the game hard and they play it well. If they win, they’ll be worthy winners of the Rugby World Cup – and worthy victors over a fine All Blacks side.

Winston Aldworth is NZME’s Head of Sport and has been a journalist since 1999.