The contest between

The Wallabies The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the ...

and The Springboks is one of the major rivalries in

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

. The teams' first meeting was on 8 July 1933 at Newlands in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

in the first of 5 tests on the 1933 Wallabies tour. The test was won 17–3 by South Africa who also won that first series 3–2. South Africa has a better than 57% winning record against Australia, and before the era of sporting boycotts, dominated the early encounters up to 1971. Both sides have exhibited a considerable home advantage, with the Springboks winning more than 75% of matches played in South Africa, and the Wallabies winning more than 60% of matches played in Australia. In the amateur era, the Springboks made five tours to Australia, and were undefeated in three of them. South Africa won three of the five test series they played in Australia; 2–0 in

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...

, 2-0 in

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...

and 3–0 in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

. By contrast, the Wallabies made six tours to South Africa, only once making it through undefeated, albeit on a tour comprising only four matches and one test in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. Prior to that, Australia's best away tour was the 2-all drawn test series of

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

.Pick and Go rugby archive
– select Wallabies and Boks. Prior to 1972, South African teams were racially selected, organised by the whites-only

South African Rugby Board The South African Rugby Board was the rugby union governing body of white South Africans between 1889 and 1992. The governing of white and coloured rugby union was handled separately during South Africa under Apartheid. On the 23 March 1992 the no ...

. Australia then supported the international boycott of sporting contacts with South Africa over the issue of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. The teams did not meet again until 1992, when apartheid was being dismantled and the SARB had merged with the non-racial

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board a ...

. Since that time Australia has won just over 50% of their games and has won the Mandela Plate nine times in the twelve years since its inception.National rugby unions
/ref> In the professional era, extended tours of each country have been replaced by participation in an annual series involving the top teams of the Southern Hemisphere. From 1996 through 2011, Australia and South Africa competed alongside

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in the Tri Nations series. Starting in 2012, the three nations competed alongside

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

The Rugby Championship The Rugby Championship is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are the four highest ranked national teams in the Southern Hemisphere; the Six Nations is a s ...

. In the Tri Nations era, the Wallabies and Springboks played two or three encounters each year on a home-and-away basis; the Rugby Championship features two annual encounters, also on a home-and-away basis.

Rugby World Cup

Australia and South Africa have met three times in the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

they were drawn in the same pool and host nation South Africa won 27–18, going on to win the cup. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Australia knocked South Africa out of the competition in a semi-final at

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

, winning 27–21, after extra-time. In

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, Australia again knocked South Africa out of the competition, in a quarter-final at

Westpac Stadium Wellington Regional Stadium (known commercially as Sky Stadium through naming rights) is a major sporting venue in Wellington, New Zealand. The stadium's bowl site size is . The stadium was built in 1999 by Fletcher Construction and is situa ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, winning 11–9.

Summary

Overall

Records

Note: Date shown in brackets indicates when the record was or last set.

Results

XV results

Below is a list of matches that Australia has retrospectively awarded matches test match status by virtue of awarding caps, but South Africa did not award caps.

List of series

Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Australia and South Africa Australia national rugby union team matches South Africa national rugby union team matches Rugby union rivalries in Australia Rugby union rivalries in South Africa