The Night the All Blacks Came to Ellis Park

There are fixtures that belong to a competition and fixtures that belong to a city. This was the second kind.

THE OCCASION. Ellis Park has hosted the All Blacks before, including on the afternoon of 24 June 1995. It had never hosted them against the Lions. The haka was answered by a full house in Doornfontein, and for eighty minutes a club side from Johannesburg shared a field with the most recognisable jersey in the sport.

HALF-TIME: LIONS 21, ALL BLACKS 17. That is the detail worth sitting with. A Johannesburg franchise went in at the interval ahead of New Zealand, having scored twenty-one points against them in forty minutes.

THE SECOND HALF. New Zealand found their range and won the second period 24-14 to take the match 41-35. Six points is the margin, and it came after the Lions had led.

WHAT IT WAS, AND WHAT IT WAS NOT. This was not a competitive international and should not be presented as one. Its value lay elsewhere: it gave these players an experience most professional careers never provide, it gave the city an occasion, and it showed that this stadium can still stage an event of global rugby interest.

THE CONTEXT. It came three weeks before the Currie Cup semi-final and a month before the United Rugby Championship opened against Leinster.

Thirty-five points against the All Blacks, and a lead at half-time. That is what happened at Ellis Park on 25 August 2026.