Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tour: Bulls vs New Zealand Preview and Prediction

After conquering Cape Town and Durban, the All Blacks head to Pretoria on the third stop of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour for a battle against the Bulls on Saturday night (19:00 kick-off), writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.

ALSO READ: Currie Cup Predictions – Round 5.

Dave Rennie’s charges had to dig deep to defeat the Stormers in last week’s tour opener, leaving the Mother City with a hard-fought 38-21 win, but made light work of a depleted Sharks side in the rain on Tuesday night.

Like kids at a waterpark, the Kiwis had a jolly good time, slipping and sliding around the Shark Tank and scoring eight unanswered tries in a 54-0 shutout to build momentum on their first traditional tour in South Africa in 30 years.

That the highlight of the second stop was 44-year-old All Blacks legend and Sharks debutant Ma’a Nonu’s one-man “Kapa o Pango” war cry in response to the tourists’ “Ka Mate” Haka says everything about the dud that was the one-sided affair.

Missing well over a dozen first-choice players, who were either in the Springbok camp or injured, the Sharks were faced with mission impossible. They didn’t lack effort but were woefully outclassed by the shadow Test team they were up against.    

Next up for New Zealand is a trip to Loftus Versfeld, where Rennie has one last opportunity to test combinations ahead of the much-anticipated opening Test against the Boks at Ellis Park next Saturday.

For the Bulls, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shock the world. Like the other local United Rugby Championship teams, they are without their Boks and in pre-season.

Johan Ackermann earlier this week spoke of what an honour it is to play the All Blacks but revealed how the clash forced them to change their plans and admitted his side is underprepared.

“We had to cut the break short. We have to give the guys a five-week break, but we could only give them three weeks,” the Bulls coach said.

“Conditioning is one thing, but your body, after three or four weeks, loses its contact ability. So we had to fast-track all of that. If this game wasn’t there, we would probably have been in a conditioning phase only. So it has put a bit of pressure on us.

“It’s a great occasion, but we will definitely be a bit underprepared from where we want to be. We’re building up to the URC and that’s still a few weeks away, so we don’t want to peak now.

“It’s not to use it as an excuse, but the fact that we went to the final meant we had less time to prepare than the other franchises. We just want to embrace the occasion and hopefully get a reward for what we’ve tried to practise over the last few weeks,” he added.

While those words won’t exactly inspire confidence in his players and Bulls supporters, Ackermann isn’t raising the white flag either. Make no mistake, he and his charges will be fired up in the change room moments before kick-off, and fronting the Haka will add extra fuel to their fire.

The Bulls have always valued and honoured tradition and history, and Marcell Coetzee and the rest of the class of 2026 will draw inspiration from and seek to emulate the Bulls vintage of 1976, who famously pipped the All Blacks 29-27 at Loftus in the last meeting between the sides (the Kiwis won all three of the previous games in the rivalry).

Then known as Northern Transvaal, the team was led by Thys Lourens and coached by Brig. Buurman van Zyl, and featured greats like Wynand Claassen, Louis Moolman, Pierre Spies, Pierre van Zyl, LM Rossouw, Tommy du Plessis and John Trollope to name a few.

Will altitude be an issue for the All Blacks? No, sir! They’re supremely fit given the time they’ve been together and coming out of Super Rugby Pacific. In fact, the trend of this tour – them getting stronger as the game progresses – looks set to continue and will kill off any hopes of another famous win for the Herd.

Prediction: New Zealand by 30.

Suggested Bet: New Zealand -29.5 at 1.88.