The most anticipated decider in this year’s Rugby Championship test series between South Africa and New Zealand is set to kick off this Saturday at Johannesburg’s 94,736-seat FNB Stadium, located on the doorstep of the iconic township of Soweto. For Springboks captain Siya Kolisi — the first Black man to lead South Africa’s national men’s rugby team — the historic setting is far more than just a match venue: it is a source of profound motivation, rooted in the struggles and triumphs that shaped modern South Africa.
Heading into Saturday’s clash, the series is tied at one win apiece. Last weekend, Kolisi overcame pre-match injury concerns to score a crucial try that secured South Africa’s series-levelling victory in the second test. Now, with the series title on the line, Kolisi has called on his squad to draw inspiration from Soweto’s central role in South Africa’s fight against apartheid.
Beyond its place in sporting history — FNB Stadium hosted the opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the only time the men’s football World Cup has been hosted on African soil — Kolisi highlighted the 1976 Soweto Uprising as a turning point that changed South Africa forever. That student-led protest against apartheid-era education policies, which forced Black students to learn through English and Afrikaans (the dominant languages of the country’s white minority population), ended with hundreds of protesters killed by state security forces. The massacre sparked global condemnation of the apartheid regime, accelerating the movement that ended state-enforced racial segregation in 1994 with South Africa’s first fully democratic elections.
“So many things that happened in Soweto helped shape the South Africa we have today,” Kolisi told reporters ahead of the match. “So many heroes have come from there, and a lot of the football history of this country is from Soweto, so we know how special that is. We’re not going to act like it’s not a special ground in a significant area. All of that gives us more to play for. We are also thankful for the people who came from there and fought for people like me and [assistant coach Mzwandile] Stick to be sitting here today. They fought for the freedom we have now and never got to experience it, and giving our best tomorrow is part of us saying thank you.”
For the visiting All Blacks, a win on Saturday would give them a 2-1 series lead heading into the fourth and final test of the rivalry series, scheduled for 12 September in Baltimore, USA. New Zealand has never lost a test match at FNB Stadium, winning both of their previous encounters at the venue. A victory this weekend would replicate the 2-1 series score the All Blacks secured during their legendary 1996 tour, the first they won on South African soil, a milestone that earned that squad the nickname the “Incomparables.”
Saturday’s fixture will also mark a historic moment for New Zealand rugby off the pitch. The men’s and women’s tests between the two nations are being held as a double-header, a repeat of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final where New Zealand’s Black Ferns defeated South Africa 46-17. In a rare milestone, brother-sister siblings Wallace and Amarante Sititi have both been named as replacements for their respective All Blacks and Black Ferns sides, both wearing the number 20 jersey.
If both take the field during their matches, they will become only the second brother-sister pair to represent New Zealand in international rugby on the same day. The first was Xavier and Annaleah Rush, who faced Australia at Sydney Football Stadium in August 1998. The pair’s father Semo Sititi, a former international captain who led Samoa and played club rugby for Borders and Newcastle in England, traveled to Johannesburg to watch the historic match.
“Representing this country is a privilege but doing it alongside my brother is something special. I will always hold it in my heart,” said Amarante ahead of the fixture. “It’s pretty surreal. I’m still buzzing out that I get to be here with my brother but it’s really cool and I’m so grateful.”
Full team lineups are as follows:
– South Africa: Kolbe; Arendse, Kriel, de Allende, Hooker; Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Reinach; Nche, Marx, Louw, Etzebeth, Nortje, Kolisi, PS du Toit, Wiese. Replacements: Fourie, Steenekamp, T du Toit, De Jager, Esterhuizen, Hanekom, Van den Berg, Libbok
– New Zealand: McKenzie; Jordan, Tupaea, J Barrett, Carter; Love, Roigard; Bower, Aumua, Lomax, Vaa’I, Darry, Lakai, Jacobson, Savea. Replacements: Taukei’aho, Numia, Newell, Holland, Sititi, Preston, Lienert-Brown, Moorby