Greatest Rivalry tour criticised as ticket prices left fans short-changed

The Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour has been criticised for charging high prices to matches between the All Blacks and South Africa’s URC clubs. The fixtures featured pre-season Stormers, Sharks and Vodacom Bulls sides, while more than 40 Springboks were unavailable. The criticism is that supporters paid Test-level prices for games that did not offer full-strength teams.

The South African clubs were still preparing for the 2026-27 season when they met New Zealand. The All Blacks, by contrast, used the matches to develop combinations and build momentum before the Test series. That imbalance was understood by South African supporters, but the pricing and scheduling still left questions over the way the tour was presented.

Cape Town drew 47,000 spectators for the Stormers’ meeting with New Zealand. The Sharks match in Durban attracted about 14,000 people in cold and wet conditions, although almost 25,000 tickets had been sold. A further 30,000 attended the All Blacks’ game against the Bulls at Loftus.

Those attendances showed the strength of interest in New Zealand’s team, but did not necessarily justify the cost of the fixtures. The view is that the crowds reflected the All Blacks’ popularity rather than the value offered by matches involving South African sides still in preparation and missing their leading internationals.

The proposed structure of the series has also been questioned. The argument is that it should have consisted of three Tests in South Africa, with the winner settled there, instead of adding a fourth Test in Baltimore.

Baltimore could have hosted an exhibition match focused on showing the depth available to both teams, while the tour fixtures in South Africa could have been priced for supporters unable to afford Test tickets. The interest generated by the All Blacks was clear, but the tour’s financial approach was seen as asking too much from fans for contests that were not full Test matches.