Springboks are the Best in the World – by some distance

All Blacks World Cup-winning coach Sir Graham Henry insists the Springboks are the Best in the World. And here is why.

South Africa pick the best South Africans in the world, wherever they play, said Henry in an interview on Martin Devlin’s DSPN

Henry applauded the Springboks selection policy. He said South African players based in Japan, France and England are embraced if they are good enough to play for the Springboks, whether they were existing Springboks or uncapped.

Form, skills and physical attributes trump geography. The Springboks, says Henry, have created depth, hardened combinations and extended the very best World Cup winners’ careers. They have also created the best team in the world, while managing to strengthen their domestic game by playing in the northern hemisphere.

New Zealand, by contrast, continue to pick only from within their borders. Henry calls it isolation, from within New Zealand, of the possibilities of selecting the best, and in a competition basis it is an isolation because of New Zealand’s geography in relation to the world map.

He emphasised that while South Africa continues to expand its selection options, the All Blacks are shrinking their player pool.

The result, he says, is reflected on the field. The Springboks won the 2019 and 2023 Rugby World Cup titles and they won the 2024 and 2025 Castle Rugby Championship. They also won the 2021 three-Test series against the British & Irish Lions.

It is not just about having more players to choose from, but having better-prepared players for the demands of Test rugby and World Cup tournaments.

Henry’s point cuts deeper when he turns to New Zealand.

The All Blacks continue to pick only from within their own system and it is a policy rooted in tradition. In the modern game it is limiting the potency of the All Blacks and isolating New Zealand as a global rugby power.

Henry speaks about exposure and the value of Super Rugby, in the South African era, because of tours to the Republic and the experience of playing teams with different strengths and with so much variety. Right now, he says, Super Rugby doesn’t offer what made the historic version of the competition so beneficial to the All Blacks.

South Africa’s leading players are competing weekly in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Several of their players are experiencing another type of rugby and culture in Japan.

They are facing different referees, different tactical systems, different weather conditions and different pressures. They are playing knockout rugby in hostile environments and learning how to win in them.

The Springboks are comfortable playing away from home and know how to win ugly and win in a dynamic way. They have shown they can adjust their game because their players are conditioned to do it every week at club level.

New Zealand’s ecosystem is narrower, which is making the All Blacks more vulnerable.

Super Rugby Pacific, for all its strengths, does not offer the same variety or the same intensity of challenge. Henry questions whether it is enough on its own to prepare a team for World Cup success. His implication is that it is not.

You cannot dominate the world by playing a version of the game that exists largely within your own borders.

This is where the Springboks have moved ahead.

They have embraced the reality that rugby is global. They have aligned their selection with that reality. They have built a squad that reflects the full strength of South African rugby, not just the portion that plays at home.

New Zealand, by contrast, are holding onto a model that once worked but now looks increasingly out of step.

Henry rates the talent within the game in New Zealand, but says it is too insular in every aspect to be a global leader.

The gap, he says, is not just about talent. It is about access to talent. It is about preparation and it is about understanding where the modern game is being played and how it is being played.

Right now, South Africa are ahead on all three fronts.