Dan Biggar says the losers played the better rugby for a month. Then he read out the number that explains why that has never mattered to this Springboks side.
“New Zealand have played the better rugby and have looked the more attacking threat and have looked, I wouldn’t say the better team, but I think it’s the biggest compliment you can give to a team is when they’ve been under the pump time after time after time and they managed to find a way to win.”
Dan Biggar, 112 caps for Wales, said it on his own channel on Sunday 13 September, the day after South Africa won Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry 3-1 in Baltimore.
He is not the first to say it this week. The two men who said it before him were the head coaches. Dave Rennie said the numbers were even. Rassie Erasmus, with the trophy in the room, would not call his own side the better team.
Biggar had something the coaches did not: a number. Six defeats by more than a score in the 80 Tests since the 2019 World Cup opener. He was not sure of the total when he read it out. The Springboks record since 2019, counted for this piece, says the six is right, and the list behind it says more than he did.
Was New Zealand the better side in this series, or only the better try-scoring one? Say so in the comments, then read on.
Second best for an hour is a pattern, not a slip
Biggar’s point is that the eye test and the scoreboard have been disagreeing about this team for years.
“I can think of so many games where this team have been second best for large periods of a game. You go back to… the World Cup semi-final against England. England by far the better team for most of that game. … They bring some subs on, get scrum penalties, kick goals, win the game. Same against France in the quarterfinal. Same in this series against the All Blacks. Same against Scotland in the Nations Championship.”
Every example survives a check, with one softened.
Paris, October 2023. England led 12-6 at half-time and 15-6 after Owen Farrell’s drop goal on 53. RG Snyman scored on 69, Handré Pollard kicked the winner on 78.
Sixteen to fifteen. The quarter-final against France finished 29-28 and the final against New Zealand 12-11. Three knockout games, three wins by a point.
Scotland is the stretch. At Loftus Versfeld in July the Springboks led 14-0 and 35-14. Scotland got it back to 14-14 by half-time and to 35-28 with ten minutes left, and it took Jesse Kriel’s try on 77 to settle it. Pressure, certainly. Second best for large periods, no.
And this series. New Zealand had outscored South Africa after three Tests and were losing the series. They finished it with 17 tries to 14, and 3-1 down.
The Springboks record since 2019, counted
Here is the number, as Biggar read it.
“There’s an amazing stat since the first game of the World Cup in 2019 South Africa have only lost six games by more than one score. Which out of I think it’s 78 or 79 games.”
Since that first game, the opener against New Zealand in Yokohama, South Africa have played 80 Tests and lost 17. Six of the 17 were by more than seven points, a converted try. Biggar’s six is right. His 78 or 79 is 80.
| Date | Opponent | Venue | Score | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 September 2021 | Australia | Brisbane | 17-30 | 13 |
| 13 August 2022 | New Zealand | Ellis Park | 23-35 | 12 |
| 27 August 2022 | Australia | Adelaide | 17-25 | 8 |
| 15 July 2023 | New Zealand | Auckland | 20-35 | 15 |
| 16 August 2025 | Australia | Ellis Park | 22-38 | 16 |
| 22 August 2026 | New Zealand | Ellis Park | 16-33 | 17 |
WeTalkRugby count from the Test-by-Test results record, 21 September 2019 to 12 September 2026. The opener itself, lost 13-23, would make seven.
Read the opponent column. Every one of the six is New Zealand or Australia. Three of the six were at Ellis Park.
Now the other eleven. No northern side has beaten South Africa by more than five points since Yokohama. The Lions by five. England by one, Wales by one, France by four. Ireland three times, by three, by five and by one.
Argentina by one. Australia by two, New Zealand by two, and New Zealand by seven at Eden Park last year.
Ten of the 17 defeats were by five points or fewer. A team can be outplayed for stretches of most Saturdays and still be a team nobody beats comfortably, because the stretches never turn into a margin.
Read also: why the Springboks scrum is the reason a close Test stays close.
What finding a way to win looks like in a ledger
Biggar names the machinery.
“The biggest compliment I could give this team is that they find a way to win and mainly that is based around their set piece, their kicking game and their scrum being the biggest weapon in world rugby currently.”
The series ledger says the same thing in columns. South Africa scored three tries fewer than New Zealand across four Tests and still finished ten points ahead on aggregate, 121-111. They kicked nine penalty goals. New Zealand kicked none, and the tee finished 49 points to 26.
Baltimore on Saturday was the pattern in one game. It was 29-21 with 15 minutes left and finished 43-28, two tries in six minutes from a loose ball and a turnover.
Biggar offered a comparison for the All Blacks, “the All Blacks have lost 12 by more than one score” over the same span. On the same rule, counted the same way, it is 13, and Baltimore is the thirteenth. He was one short in the direction that helps his argument.
Greatest of his lifetime, on the trophy count
He ends where every South African wants him to.
“So, anyone who questions the Springboks, you just look at that and the games they’ve won, the experience they’ve got, the innovations they do, and it’s hard push[ed] to say that this team would not be up there for the greatest team that we’ve seen in our lifetime.”
The list checks. Two World Cups. The Lions beaten 2-1 in Cape Town. The Rugby Championship in both of the last two years it was played, the second retained by two points against Argentina at Twickenham. And now this series, 3-1.
Whether the coach is the greatest was argued on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod last week. The team is a different question, and Biggar’s answer to it is the table above.
Better rugby is a statement about tries. Better team is a statement about who wins. Biggar said both, and only one of them gets a trophy.
Read next: Eben Etzebeth has two World Cup medals and rates the Baltimore decider above both.
Frequently asked
How many Tests have the Springboks lost since the 2019 World Cup? Seventeen of the 80 played since the Yokohama opener, six of them by more than seven points, all six against New Zealand or Australia. Count the opener itself and it is 18 of 81.
Did Dan Biggar say New Zealand were the better team? No. He said New Zealand “played the better rugby” and were “the more attacking threat”, then added “I wouldn’t say the better team”, and called finding a way to win the biggest compliment a side can be paid.
What has this Springboks team won since 2019? The World Cup in 2019 and 2023, the 2021 series against the British & Irish Lions, the Rugby Championship in 2024 and 2025, and Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry 3-1 in September 2026.
Your turn
Two readings of the same 80 Tests. One: this team wins the passages that decide a Test, and the eye test measures the wrong thing. Two: this team has survived on a scrum and a goal-kicker against sides that cannot match either, and the day one can, the margins go. Six big defeats in 80. Which is it?
