Springboks v All Blacks: Teams, kick off time, officials

All attention is quickly turning to kick off between the Springboks and All Blacks on Saturday, with this blockbuster fixture at the iconic Ellis Park sure to be one of the premier highlights on the Test rugby calendar this year.

Springbok centre Damian de Allende will become the 10th player in history to earn 100 Test caps for South Africa, with the team named for the RGR opener at showing a mix of continuity in selection from the Test against Argentina, and a host of players who remained behind in South Africa to prepare for the New Zealand opener.

Meanwhile, four star players return to the All Blacks side as scrumhalf Cam Roigard, winger Will Jordan and fullback Damian McKenzie slot into the starting backline, while captain Ardie Savea will make his first appearance of the tour. 

Kick off is at 17:10 in Johannesburg.

HOW THE SPRINGBOKS AND ALL BLACKS WILL LINE UP FOR KICK OFF AT ELLIS PARK

SPRINGBOKS – 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit (c), 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruan Nortjé, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nché.
Subs: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 André Esterhuizen, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Manie Libbok.

ALL BLACKS – 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Quinn Tupaea, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Josh Moorby, 10 Ruben Love, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Ardie Savea (c), 7 Luke Jacobson, 6 Tupou Vaa’i, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Josh Lord, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot.
Subs: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 George Bower, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Anton Segner, 20 Peter Lakai, 21 Kyle Preston, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Leroy Carter.

Rankings permutation highlights:

• New Zealand will return to number one for the first time since September 2025 if they beat South Africa in the first Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
• South Africa currently hold a 1.68 rating point advantage over New Zealand, which could grow to as much as 4.18 points if the Springboks win by more than 15 points.
• A New Zealand victory by that margin would see them with a 1.82 point cushion going into the second Test in Cape Town.
• Neither side can drop below second this weekend. 

VIEW WORLD RUGBY MEN’S RANKINGS >>

Referee notes

Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
Assistant referees: Karl Dickson (England), Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
TMO: Mike Adamson (Scotland)

Carley’s Test debut: 8 March, 2014 – Russia 34-18 Portugal. Tests as referee: 51

• Matthew Carley will referee this fixture for the fourth time, with South Africa having emerged victorious in all three previous meetings.
• Only one of these has come on South African soil, the Springboks winning 18-12 in Cape Town in the 2024 Rugby Championship.
• The others came on Australia’s Gold Coast in the 2021 Rugby Championship (31-29) and at Twickenham in a Rugby World Cup 2023 warm-up match (35-7).
• South Africa lost their first two tests with Carley in the middle – against Wales (22-20 in June 2018) and Australia (30-17 in September 2021) – but are currently on a seven-match winning run.
• Two of these took place in 2025, a 55-10 victory over Georgia in July and a 24-13 defeat of Ireland in the Quilter Nations Series.
• New Zealand have a W5, L3 record with Carley as referee with all three losses at the hands of South Africa.
• They also won their most recent encounter with the English official in charge, beating Australia 28-14 in the 2025 Rugby Championship.
• This will be Carley’s third Test of the year, having become the 19th official to reach 50 tests in the middle in February with Scotland’s 26-23 victory over Wales in Cardiff before overseeing the Scots’ 33-17 win against Fiji in the Nations Championship last month.

Miscellaneous:

• Damian de Allende will become only the 10^th player in Springbok history to feature in 100 Tests on Saturday after making his international debut against Argentina in 2014.
• Pieter-Steph du Toit, who will lead the team in his fourth Test this season, requires only one more appearance after this match to join the exclusive club of Springbok centurions, with the flanker running out in his 99^th Test match this weekend.
• Prop Ox Nche will feature in his 49^th Test match, leaving him only one match short of earning 50 Test matches, while Jasper Wiese requires only three more Test caps to earn his 50^th cap.
• Eben Etzebeth will extend his record as the most capped Springbok player of all time to 143 caps when he takes the field.
• Manie Libbok requires only three more points to earn 150 international points.
• The Castle Lager Double Malt Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series marks the first time since 1996 that the All Blacks have embarked on a traditional rugby tour to South Africa.
• The last time the Springboks met the All Blacks in Johannesburg was in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship in 2024, with the Boks winning that match by 31-27.
• The Springboks have won five of the last six matches between the teams dating back to August 2023, which included the Rugby World Cup final in France that same year.
• The total Test caps in the Springbok starting line-up is 850. There are 373 caps in the backline, with 477 caps among the forwards. On the bench, there are a further 193 caps.
• The average caps per player in the backline is 53, the forwards 60, while the players on the bench average 24.

Other match facts

• The All Blacks have played the Springboks at Ellis Park 16 times, with South Africa winning ten times and the All Blacks six.
• This year’s Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry is the 13th Test series between the All Blacks and Springboks.  The ledger is tied at five each, with the first two series drawn (1921 and 1928). The Springboks then won five of the next seven to 1976.  New Zealand had won only at home, in 1956 and 1965, having lost at home in 1937.  New Zealand has won the last three series, 1981 and 1994 at home, and 1996 in South Africa, the famous first away victory.
• The Springboks and the All Blacks are currently ranked first and second in the men’s world rankings and have combined to win seven of the 10 Rugby World Cups contested since the tournament began in 1987. The All Blacks lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in 1987, 2011 and 2015, while South Africa have won it four times, in 1995, 2007, 2019 and 2023. Two of those finals have been played directly between the great rivals. South Africa won 15-12 after extra time at Ellis Park in 1995, before edging the All Blacks 12-11 at Stade de France in 2023. It should also be noted that South Africa did not play in the first two Rugby World Cup tournaments in 1987 and 1991.