Simon Culhane was on the field in 1996 when the All Blacks last won a test series in South Africa. Nearly thirty years later, that achievement still stands as one of the most storied benchmarks in New Zealand rugby history, and Culhane carries the weight of it with him.
He knows exactly what awaits the current squad. South Africa is not a place where visiting teams find comfort. Speaking on Sport Nation’s Millsy and Guy program, Culhane was direct: South Africa is “a hell of a tough country to play against” where “you never feel comfortable” against the Springboks. That is not a technical observation. It is a lived one.
The challenge extends well beyond the tactical. It is a test of will, of resilience, of a team’s ability to hold itself together when the environment is working against it. Few touring sides have managed it. The 1996 All Blacks did, and Culhane was among them.
What makes his current assessment worth listening to is precisely that experience. This is not a commentator speculating from the outside. Culhane has felt the pressure of that environment and knows what it takes to come through it. And what he sees in the current All Blacks gives him genuine optimism. “I think the boys are on their way up,” he said during the program. “I think they’ve got a definite opportunity and I’m expecting, or predicting, that they’ll go pretty well actually.”
That is a measured prediction, not a casual one. Culhane has watched this team develop and believes the trajectory is real. The Springboks, he notes, never truly fade from contention. Their resilience is part of what makes beating them on home soil such a significant accomplishment, and part of what makes any prediction in their favor a serious statement.
Meanwhile, the gap between 1996 and now spans thirty years of rugby evolution, changed personnel, and shifting conditions. The game looks different. The players are different. Yet the fundamental test remains the same: can a New Zealand team travel to South Africa, survive the physical and mental gauntlet, and win a series?
Culhane believes this group has the ingredients to answer that question the right way. The history is daunting, the standard is high, and the Springboks remain as dangerous as ever. But for the first time in a long time, a man who has actually done it thinks the current All Blacks are capable of doing it too.
Whether the squad can turn that belief into history is the question that will define their tour.