Boks seal $6m Baltimore payday

by WILL COOPER
Special contributor
BALTIMORE, (CAJ News) – THE Springboks have conquered the All Blacks again, defeating New Zealand 43-28 in Baltimore to win the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series 3-1 and underline their status as the world’s leading Test side.

South Africa entered Saturday’s fourth and final Test holding a 2-1 advantage after victories in Cape Town and Johannesburg, following New Zealand’s opening win in Johannesburg.

A victory for the All Blacks would have levelled the series, making the Baltimore encounter a genuine decider.

Instead, the world champions produced a six-try performance in front of 68,173 spectators at M&T Bank Stadium.

Damian de Allende, Morné van den Berg, Malcolm Marx, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Cameron Hanekom crossed the line for the Springboks.

New Zealand responded through Codie Taylor, Will Jordan, Ethan Blackadder and Beauden Barrett, but could not overturn South Africa’s advantage.

The victory completes an extraordinary revival of one of rugby’s greatest traditional rivalries.

The six-week tour marked New Zealand’s first full-scale tour of South Africa in 30 years and included eight matches, combining provincial encounters with four Tests against the Springboks.

Beyond the trophy, however, Baltimore was also a major commercial gamble.

The match was deliberately taken to the United States as part of a strategy to grow rugby in one of the world’s biggest sports markets ahead of the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup, which will be hosted by the US.

The financial prize was substantial.

The Baltimore Test was projected to generate an additional $4 million to $6 million for the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry partners, South African Rugby and New Zealand Rugby, compared with staging the match in South Africa.

World Rugby also provided an undisclosed incentive for taking the fixture to America.

There was therefore no conventional winner-takes-all cash prize for the Springboks.

The financial windfall is shared by the two unions, while South Africa takes the sporting prize and both nations benefit commercially from the successful series.

The 68,173 crowd, the largest ever for a rugby international in the United States, offered an encouraging glimpse of rugby’s potential ahead of the 2031 World Cup.

For the Springboks, the significance extends beyond Baltimore.

Their 3-1 triumph sends a powerful warning ahead of the 2027 World Cup: South Africa remain the team to beat, while their ability to combine physical dominance with increasingly adventurous attacking rugby makes them even more formidable.

– CAJ News