The All Blacks completed a clean sweep of South Africa's United Rugby Championship heavyweights on Saturday night, running in eight tries to beat the Bulls 50-19 at Loftus Versfeld. It was a third win in eight days on tour, after the 38-21 defeat of the Stormers in Cape Town and the 54-0 rout of the Sharks in Durban.
Josh Moorby scored twice inside the opening 18 minutes, and captain Codie Taylor — back from injury and leading the side — added two more before the break to make it 24-0. The Bulls were far more competitive after half-time, with Ruan Vermaak, Stravino Jacobs and Marcell Coetzee all crossing, but they had already spent too much of the first half undoing themselves. Hanro Liebenberg had a try ruled out for an earlier knock-on, another was denied with no conclusive evidence of a grounding, and prop Francois Klopper was yellow-carded on the half hour.
Leroy Carter and Rieko Ioane stretched the lead in the second half, Carter grabbing a second on 67 minutes, before Wallace Sititi burst through under the posts late on. Flanker Anton Segner, who led the tourists with 13 tackles and produced a crucial jackal turnover on 22 minutes, was named official man of the match.
The result matters mostly for what comes next. The first of four Rugby's Greatest Rivalry Tests against the Springboks is at Ellis Park on Saturday, and Dave Rennie used the post-match press conference to shut down the loudest question of the week.
"He arrived late last night. He is very, very excited and jumping out of his skin," Rennie said of Richie Mo'unga, who joined the squad on Friday as cover for the injured Billy Proctor. "He's already done a fair bit of study, and we'll spend the next week with him getting his head around our game. We won't pick him in the first test. He will get a chance to get some game time against the Lions."
Rennie confirmed the Test side would look a lot different to the one that took the field in Pretoria, and that several of Saturday's substitutions were precautionary rather than forced.
"Codie coming off at half-time was planned," he said. "Xavier [Numia] just had a bit of a stiff Achilles – so we decided not to risk that and he came off at half-time and then likewise with Cortez Ratima, he's got a bit of a bang and a knee, and he felt it was probably okay, but again, we've got a Test match in seven days."
On the three players held out of the Bulls match, Rennie was cautiously positive. "Will and Cam got through a bit of training yesterday and we're pretty confident they're going to be right by next week," he said, adding that the squad was "probably less confident about Damian" McKenzie, while still expecting him to be available.
Taylor, whose 100 per cent lineout return and a dominant scrum underpinned the win, was not inclined to read much into the scoreline.
"I'm sure they're going to be asking a lot more questions come next week," the hooker said. "From where we started with the Stormers and built our way through these club games, I feel like we made some great strides as a forward pack. We are by no means the finished product… there's going to be so much more we can work on."
Across Johannesburg, the Springboks wrapped up a two-day training block of their own, having spent most of the week recovering from the 17-10 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires and readjusting to the local time zone. Hooker Johan Grobbelaar and forward Elrigh Louw, released to face the All Blacks with the Bulls, rejoin the squad on Sunday.
"But we are pleased that the players are well recovered and ready to give everything for the forthcoming Tests against the All Blacks," Rassie Erasmus said.
The South Africa coach is treating the four-match series as something closer to a tournament than a tour. "This series is almost like playing the knock-out stages of a Rugby World Cup because we are facing one of the world's best week in and week out, and we all understand the magnitude of the RGR series," he said.
There is a ranking at stake as well as a series. South Africa sit top of the World Rugby rankings on 93.96 points, New Zealand second on 92.28. A win of any kind at Ellis Park would put the All Blacks back at No.1 for the first time since August 2025; a draw is enough for the Springboks to hold on. Kick-off in Johannesburg is at 17h10 local time.
