Wales’ shock victory over All Blacks gives Springboks Nations Championship lifeline

Detailed summary

Wales’ historic 35-28 win over the All Blacks in Cardiff reopened the door for the Springboks to make the final of the Nations Championship following their loss to ...

Wales’ historic 35-28 win over the All Blacks in Cardiff reopened the door for the Springboks to make the final of the Nations Championship following their loss to France.

Initial predictions that the Nations Championship, the attempt to give the annual July and November Test windows more significance, was a lame duck tournament, have been turned upside down after a weekend of excellent rugby.

The Springboks’ 21-19 loss to France in Paris on Friday night, a magnificent game for the neutral and for Les Bleus fans, set the tone.

The result seemed to have scuppered the Boks’ chances of making the final of the inaugural Nations Championship because the All Blacks remained undefeated with games against Wales and England to come.

On Saturday morning, the Boks woke up knowing that even five log points in their final pool match against Ireland in Dublin next week would probably not be enough to reclaim the top spot in the Southern Hemisphere standings.

Most pundits and fans had already given the All Blacks five log points for the Wales game, even though New Zealand coach Dave Rennie heavily rotated his team.

If the All Blacks took maximum points from the Wales outing, they’d only need two log points from their final game against England to better the Boks. Now, it’s all to play for.

Maybe there was some complacency in the All Black camp. They had won 34 consecutive Tests against Wales going back to 1953.

In that time, the All Blacks had beaten many better Wales teams than the 2026 version. The great 1970s Welsh sides of Phil Bennett, Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams, Barry John and others had narrowly been beaten.

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