Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry: What Argentina Have to Do With It
Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry is the most-watched series in world rugby right now. The All Blacks are in South Africa, the Springboks are without their captain, and the four-test series between the two most successful teams in the history of the game is consuming rugby’s attention from Cape Town to Edinburgh. Argentina are not part of it. But they arguably started it — and the story of how Los Pumas fit into Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry is more interesting than most people realise.
What Is Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry?
Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry is a branded four-test series between New Zealand and South Africa, taking place across August and September 2026. The All Blacks are touring South Africa for the first leg, with tests against the Stormers, the Sharks, and then two full internationals against the Springboks. The second leg moves to New Zealand in September. The concept packages the oldest and most contested rivalry in international rugby into a standalone event — 170 years of test rugby, 100 meetings between the two nations, distilled into one extended blockbuster.
In the opening provincial games, the All Blacks beat the Stormers and then put 54 points past the Sharks without reply. The tour has been a statement of intent from Dave Rennie’s side. Whether that carries into the test matches against the full Springbok squad is the question that will define the southern hemisphere rugby calendar for the next two months.
Kolisi Got Hurt in Buenos Aires — The Argentine Connection
On 7 August 2026, the Springboks held their captain’s run at the San Isidro Club in Buenos Aires — one of Argentina’s most historic rugby institutions, home to the Pumas’ deepest domestic roots since the 19th century. Siya Kolisi led the session. It was his first week back from a hamstring injury that had kept him out of the entire Nations Championship campaign.
Twenty-four hours later, Argentina and South Africa played a test match at Estadio José Amalfitani. Kolisi lasted twenty-five minutes. He pulled his other hamstring — the one that hadn’t been injured — and limped off with South Africa leading 7-3. The Springboks held on to win 17-10 in a match that was tighter than the scoreline suggests: Argentina hit the post with a penalty that would have put them ahead in the second half, Los Pumas’ scrum went backwards for the decisive SA try, and Moroni dropped a high ball in the corner on the final play that would have meant a draw. It was that close.
“I hurt my hamstring again unfortunately,” Kolisi said afterwards. Rassie Erasmus told the media it “does not look too bad” — but the Springbok captain is now a doubt for the opening test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry against New Zealand, the most important match of South Africa’s season. Argentina cost the Springboks their captain. That is not a small thing.
Twelve Years Without Playing the All Blacks
Here is what the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry branding does not mention: Argentina have not played New Zealand in twelve years. Not a test match, not a Rugby Championship fixture, not a tour game. The two nations that dominated southern hemisphere rugby for two decades — Argentina joined the Rugby Championship in 2012 — have not faced each other since 2014. Scheduling, COVID, competition restructuring, and the eventual separation of Argentina into the Nations Championship while New Zealand and South Africa contested their own standalone series have produced a twelve-year gap that would be unthinkable in any other sport.
For a generation of Argentine rugby players, the All Blacks are an abstraction. They watch them. They study them. They do not play them. For Argentine fans who grew up watching Los Pumas face the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship every year, the absence is genuinely strange — like a rivalry that has been put on hold without anyone officially announcing it.
What Argentina Proved Against the Springboks
The 17-10 result in Buenos Aires does not tell the full story of what Argentina showed in that test match. Los Pumas were defensively excellent in the first half — the score was 10-10 at the break, and Argentina’s organisation under pressure was as good as anything Felipe Contepomi’s side has produced this year. The debutants performed above expectations. The penalty that hit the post in the second half — a kick that would have put Argentina 13-10 ahead — was the moment the match turned. When it didn’t go over, South Africa absorbed the pressure and scored the try from an Argentine scrum going backwards that ultimately settled the game.
That is not a losing performance. That is a team that is two or three moments away from beating the world champions. And it is a team that, on the basis of that display, would make Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry considerably more complicated if either New Zealand or South Africa had to face them in a World Cup knockout. See our full Argentina vs South Africa match report for the complete breakdown.
Rugby World Cup 2027 — When the Rivalry Gets Complicated
Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry will meet its most interesting test in Australia in 2027. New Zealand are in Pool A, South Africa in Pool B — they cannot meet until the final. Argentina are in Pool C, with Fiji, Spain and Canada. Based on the pools, a potential quarter-final between Ireland and Argentina is the most discussed second-round matchup, but if Argentina top their pool — which they should — and Ireland do not, the brackets open up in ways that could bring Los Pumas into contact with either New Zealand or South Africa in the knockout rounds for the first time since the 2023 final, when the Springboks beat the All Blacks 12-11 in Paris.
The team that came within a post’s width of beating South Africa in Buenos Aires in August 2026 — with Kolisi limping off and the Springboks visibly working to hold on — is not a team to be taken lightly in that context. Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry between New Zealand and South Africa deserves all the attention it is getting. But the third team in that conversation, twelve years removed from the last time they faced the All Blacks, is building quietly towards the moment when they get back into it. For more on Argentina’s World Cup campaign, see our Argentina fixtures and Rugby Championship 2026 guide. According to World Rugby, Argentina are currently ranked seventh in the world.
Read More — Rugby Books on Amazon UK
📖 Pumas: A History of Argentine Rugby — the full story of Los Pumas, from the origins to the World Cup semi-final. Essential reading before the 2027 tournament.
📖 Around the World in 80 Minutes — Ben Ryan on the greatest rivalries, players and cultures in world rugby. Waterstones Book of the Year.
🍺 Craft beer hampers on Amazon UK — the only way to watch the Greatest Rivalry series.
