Aisle be Back: All Blacks v South Africa 3.0

The high veldt has almost mythical status. In days gone by, New Zealand teams knew they would be destined to visit there and be subjected to a gruelling physiological test, as their bodies tried to acclimatise to oxygen deficit.

Lungs would burn, players would vomit. It was the Boks sucker punch if they needed it.

But then Super Rugby came along, and New Zealand teams learnt to play at altitude, or minimise the ill effects. Apparently, you head there shortly before match day or spend a week there as the other option.

Now, weirdly, it is being seen as an advantage for the All Blacks in 2026. As in, they believe themselves to be better conditioned than their world champion rivals, and hope that will pay off in the latter stages of the match.

They certainly believe that’s what happened in the same city in the first test of the series, where the Boks faded badly in the last 30 minutes.

In test two, they clinically controlled the match, and exerted scoreboard pressure so that New Zealand was left chasing. Making it a one-score game with four minutes to go may suggest the Boks were creaking. But if they were, they’d already done the hard work.

I’m sure a hopeful nation (us) will hope the All Blacks are right, and that a team built on speed and dynamism and fresh legs can triumph. We’d also be grateful if perhaps they were to get a shade pragmatic and take-the-three a little bit more.

The world’s greatest and fairest scrummagers may well prefer to not run around so much and will instead rather take a walk from scrum to scrum. Oops, don’t mention walking. I did but I think I got away with it.

Nika Amashukeli from Georgia is the ref and can be relied onto police the scrums however – since his homeland is wild about scrummaging.

In a fun fact, he was once stabbed with a knife in a leg and started hemorrhaging blood. This was after he referred a game in 2016 and players disputed when the final whistle was blown.

The sideline attacker was never found.

In an understatement, he said it had been an emotional match.

As it will be on Sunday morning. It would be very strange if this match – at a giant football stadium before maybe 80-thousand fans – won’t be a blockbuster.

Yes, it is a four-test series but come on – the Baltimore test isn’t in South Africa, unless Donald Trump has been renaming things again. So, whoever wins this weekend will also have the sneaky out of saying they won the series on South African soil.