Sitting in the press seats last Friday on a perfect Cape Town night, minutes after being blown away by a spectacular light show with the newly installed beams at the DHL Stadium, it was obvious this was something special.

Iâve been fortunate enough to be at numerous Springbok vs All Black Tests, from Ellis Park to Eden Park, from Twickenham to Phokeng (the Royal Bafokeng Stadium) and from Stade de France to Carisbrook and many other places in between.

Theyâve all been special because one or both of the Boks or All Blacks are usually at the summit of the game. And even on the rare occasions when theyâre not in the top two ranked teams in the world, the clashes are seismic.

Rugbyâs Greatest Rivalry is an apt marketing slogan.

But at DHL Stadium last week, it was the first time Iâd been to an All Black match against a South African club (or any club for that matter), and it crystallised why tours of this nature matter.

To see, and more importantly, feel, the emotion in the stadium as the South African anthem followed New Zealandâs, hit slightly differently.

I was sceptical about organisers opting for the South African anthem to be played for a club game. But it was a masterstroke. It lent even more gravitas and intensity to the occasion.

It made Stormers players feel like Test players. Tears from Hacjivah Dayimani and Deon Fourie, a quivering lip from Ruhan Nel and Warrick Gelant and a host of other reactions told the Stormersâ playersâ story.

The SA anthem made the All Blacks know that they were about to play, I wonât say a Test, but an âinternationalâ. They immediately understood that this was a tough assignment.

The Stormersâ gutsy performance before losing 38-21 after being level at 14-14 after 68 minutes, was worthy of a Test. It was compelling and thunderous. It was everything you expect from clashes between the All Blacks and South African players.

Fourie, at 39, was immense. It was one of the great performances against the All Blacks and within 48 hours of exiting the match to a rousing, standing ovation, the veteran flank/hooker was recalled to the Bok squad. Talk about fairytales.

The Stormers were without 10 Springboks and had only been in their United Rugby Championship pre-season programme for a few weeks. It was not the ideal time for them to face the All Blacks, but the players made the city, and the country proud.

The All Blacks were also testing out new combinations on their first tour match, but watching them attack in the opening 10 minutes, you wouldnât have known it. They were slicker than Brylcreem with ball in hand.

Lessons

That said, though, the match was a vital data-gathering outing for both the watching Boks and the All Blacks.

Clearly the All Blacks under Dave Rennie are already heavily leaning into their innate ball-in-hand approach, played at speed. New Zealanders collectively are the most skilled rugby players on earth, coming out of a system that places a premium on ball handling and pace.

Thatâs the game theyâve become famous for and one that Rennie seems intent on making the foundation of his tenure.

But for it to work effectively, it must be underpinned by the universal foundations of the sport â strong defence, powerful set piece, tactical kicking skill and quality under an aerial bombardment.

The All Blacks wonât beat the Springboks by conceding 16 penalties and three yellow cards, as they did against the Stormers.

They wonât beat the Springboks if they canât handle the aerial bombardment that will surely come their way and they wonât beat the Springboks if they canât gain parity in the set-piece battle.

The Stormers showed the way to beat the All Blacks, but they just lacked the quality to do it. The Boks donât lack quality.

Rennie knows this â he is no fool. And you can bet your house that over the next two games before the first Test at Ellis Park on 22 August, the All Blacks will be much better in those key pillars by the time they meet the Boks.

âWhen we had the ball, we were really dangerous,â Rennie said after the Stormers game.

âWe knew they would bring a lot of line speed, and in quite dewy conditions that made life difficult, and we werenât quite clinical enough to really expose them.

âWe knew they would come at us with their set piece, so we have to be better in these areas. We expected a lot of aerial attacks, and again we didnât deal with that as well as we wanted. They were all things we expected and things we would have hoped to have dealt with better.â

There is no arrogance in Rennie. He is a realist and knows that to impose his gameplan on the Boks, his team must be able to nullify the Boksâ primary threats.

Itâs not new. The Boks play how they play, using their core foundations and then attacking. Knowing how to stop the world champions, and actually stopping them, are two very different things.

Despite the Boksâ scrappy 17-10 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires at the weekend, where they were on the back foot for long stretches, it wonât have taught Rennie much he didnât know.

The Boks defended superbly, while their aerial game, and to an extent, their set piece faltered. The Bomb Squad, with different faces, was still the ultimate difference in a tight game.

The All Blacks were aware of the Boksâ 23-man game before this weekend, and all the Pumas game did for the watching All Blacks was galvanise their planning. There were no mysteries on display in Buenos Aires.

Also, I couldnât help feeling that the All Blacks are still hiding a lot. Yes, they are kicking from hand fewer times per game than they were last year, but I suspect that they are developing a clever kicking strategy in addition to their skilful phase play, which they will only unleash in the Tests.

Setting the tone

The Stormers game was a clash that set the tone for the tour and also gave endorsement to SA Rugby and New Zealand Rugby that returning to full tours for the first time in 30 years was the right move.

Obviously, there was some understandable unhappiness in Australia and Argentina that the 2026 Rugby Championship was cancelled, to their financial cost.

But from a pure rugby spectacle, everything about this tour felt right during the opening game.

There were also 47,130 people in the stadium, despite horrendous traffic issues pre-kick-off. Some of the ticket prices were apparently dropped late in the week, but Iâve not been able to verify that claim.

Regardless of how, the DHL Stadium was nearly at capacity and the occasion lived up to the hype.

Itâs now over to Durban, the ageing Kingâs Park and a mix-and-match-looking Sharks lineup to carry the momentum of the tour forward.

While the selection of 44-year-old former All Black centre Maâa Nonu on the bench for the Sharks has been criticised in some quarters as denying a young Sharks player the chance of meeting the All Blacks, I donât really see the problem.

Nonu, the 103-Test veteran, has been employed by the club to be a mentor/coach. Only two months ago, he was good enough to play Champions Cup rugby for Toulon, so why not good enough to represent the Sharks?

Of course there is a marketing element to this selection, even if no one will admit it.

In 2008, four New Zealanders playing for Munster when the Irish club met the All Blacks in a midweek game, delivered their own haka before kick-off.

It was a great moment that is still talked about today.

Speaking to members of the All Black staff on Friday, they said they would not be surprised to see Nonu step forward and do a solo haka, as a challenge to his countrymen. That will be worth the entry fee alone. According to my All Black friend, solo hakas are more frequent than we know.

The forecast is for rain in Durban, which might force Rennie to show his hand with the kicking game more than heâd like.

Thatâs the beauty of these games and of a full tour. Rennie and the All Blacks have time to fine-tune their tactics and gameplan in competitive contests. But they also know that the Boks are watching, waiting and plotting.

So, they must hide parts of their repertoire. Or, they must throw out some red herrings and hope the Boks nibble.

For us watching, itâs a treat and glorious departure from the excellent but formulaic Rugby Championship.

This is a five-week story that will build its own narrative with each passing day. DM