Boks vs All Blacks finally a reality
MBOMBELA - Thirty-one months of waiting is over for the Lowvelders as they prepare for the big day at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday - the Springboks versus the All Blacks.
The excitement started in January 2020 when a Sunday newspaper had reported that SA Rugby’s director of rugby and then Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus, requested that SA Rugby consider Mbombela Stadium as the venue for that year’s home Castle Lager Rugby Championship match against the All Blacks.
Mbombela Stadium’s manager, Roelf Kotze, told Lowvelder at the time that the stadium management and SA Rugby had been and still were in discussions concerning the hosting of a Springbok match that year.
On February 4, 2020, the official announcement was made by SA Rugby South Africa would play New Zealand at Mbombela Stadium on September 26 that year.
“The highly anticipated match against the All Blacks will take place in Mbombela in the Lowveld for the first time,” SA Rugby’s CEO, Jurie Roux, had said.
Details of ticket sales were to be announced shortly. Bok fever began burning in the Lowveld.
But it was not to be.
In July 2020, that year’s Rugby Championship was rescheduled to be played in October and November in Australia, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Mbombela match was cancelled.
On October 16, just two days before the Bok squad was due to fly to Australia, South Africa withdrew from that year’s championship.
“The ongoing complications related to the Covid-19 pandemic and concerns about seriously jeopardising player welfare, made it impossible to commit to Sanzaar [South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentinia] that South Africa would be able to compete,” SA Rugby said at the time.
The 2021 Rugby Championship took place under restrictions.
The only two matches in South Africa, the Springboks against Argentina on consecutive Saturdays in August, were played in an empty Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
The world was returning to almost normal as worldwide vaccinations started winning the war on Covid, and in December 2021, the possibility of Mbombela Stadium hosting a Rugby Championship match against the All Blacks started spreading on social media.
On February 8 this year, the details of the Springbok’s Castle Lager Incoming Series and Castle Lager Rugby Championship were announced.
August 6 was the date, Mbombela
Stadium the venue and South Africa versus New Zealand the fixture. At the time, Covid-19 regulations limited crowds at an outdoor event to 2 000 vaccinated people. South Africa was on adjusted alert level 1. The people of the Lowveld waited for an announcement by the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on Covid-19 and SA Rugby’s decision on ticket sales.
Despite alert level 1, tickets for the match went on sale for a full-capacity stadium on March 9, and Lowvelders rushed to buy theirs not knowing if, on match day, they would be able to use them.
On February 16, the MAC relaxed the restrictions - outdoor venues could be filled to 50% capacity, vaccinated persons only.
But June 23, just six weeks before the big game, was the day fans knew attending the long-awaited match was finally a reality.
The South African Government, on recommendation from the MAC, lifted all remaining Covid-19 restrictions. Every seat in Mbombela Stadium could be filled.
On Saturday, 31 months after the initial hype in the Lowveld about the Springbok versus All Blacks match at Mbombela Stadium, 43 000 fans will get to experience the greatest rivalry in world rugby.