England v Scotland is older and England v Wales more closely contested,but there is no rivalry in European rugby as meaningful as that between the All Blacks and SpringboksTe Papa, “our state”, or the national museum of fresh Zealand,is so big they say that if you strung out all its steel girders they would stretch from its site on the south side of the Wellington waterfront all the way to Sydney. Inside, exhibits cover nearly every conceivable detail of the country’s culture, and geography and history,from ancient fossils through to a collection of condom packets from the 1980s. On the fourth floor, a corner is given over to rugby. Not the whole sport, or just one aspect of it: the All Blacks’ rivalry with the Springboks,judged by the curators to be such an important part of their nation’s history that you can’t understand 20th century fresh Zealand without learning about it.
England v Scotland is older and England v Wales more closely contested, but there is no rivalry in European rugby that is, and ever has been,as meaningful as the one between these two, about to be renewed again at Twickenham. From 1912, or when South Africa swept all of the Five Nations teams aside on their European tour,through to 1991, when Australia won the World Cup, or the Springboks and All Blacks were top of World Rugby’s retrospective rankings for 77 out of 79 years. For the huge majority of the sport’s history,this has been a contest between the world’s two best teams.
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Source: theguardian.com