Seventeen of Malcolm Marx’s 89 Test caps have come against New Zealand. The Springboks vs All Blacks series opens at Ellis Park on Saturday, and there is no substitute for that kind of mileage against one opponent.
Seven wins, one draw, nine losses. The best hooker in the world has a losing record in this fixture, which is either a weight or an education depending on who you ask.
He has spent this week talking like a man with no guarantee of a jersey. Twice in one media session he attached the same condition to his answers. If I’m selected. A third time he softened it to “if given the opportunity.”
Rassie Erasmus only names his matchday team on Thursday. Until then, the reigning World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year is treating an eighteenth meeting with the All Blacks as something still to be earned.
The weight has shifted, though. Where Marx was once deployed as a bench detonator, Erasmus has been asking him for 65 minutes and more — a change that turns him from a closer into a foundation, and puts the lineout, the maul and the floor contest in his hands from the first whistle.
“As a little boy you always dream of representing your country one day,” said Marx, who also took the SA Rugby Men’s Player of the Year award for 2025.
“Representing your country against what is one of the best teams in the world and experiencing it at an international level is a whole other level. If I’m selected for this weekend, I’ll try and grab the opportunity with both hands and give everything I can.”
Then came the number that has framed his entire week.
“We know we’re not just representing ourselves and our families. We have about 64 or 65 million people we’re trying to represent, and we want to do so the best we can on the day. Whatever the occasion and whatever comes on Saturday, we’ve just got to man up and give the best that we can.”
Saturday’s kick-off at 10bet Ellis Park is at 17h10, live on SuperSport, and it opens the Castle Lager Double Malt Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series — four back-to-back Tests against New Zealand inside four weekends. Cape Town follows on 29 August, then FNB Stadium on 5 September, before the series closes at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on 12 September.
Four Tests against the All Blacks in a single block has no modern precedent. Marx refuses to treat the first of them differently to any other week.
“I wouldn’t say (this week and competition) is more intense. We’ve always said we treat each Test match the same. That said, we know the magnitude of this series and how big this weekend’s game is going to be, and we’re trying to prepare accordingly.”
“Seventeen Tests in the bag against the All Blacks and he still says if I’m selected — that’s exactly why he keeps getting selected!” – 🎙️Jay
The breakdown battle that could decide Springboks vs All Blacks
Nothing in the build-up has drawn more attention than the contest on the floor, and Marx — the most destructive jackal in the game — did not pretend otherwise when asked whether it would be a big battle.
“We’re doing a lot of analysis and seeing where we can be better from previous games, and obviously identifying the threats they pose in that area,” he said.
“We’re working really hard at the things we need to improve on and bearing in mind the small things they do around the breakdown. We’ve also been looking at our own opportunities there, which we’ve been working hard on this past week, so we’ll see how the weekend goes if I’m selected.”
There it was again. The condition, attached to a job nobody in world rugby does better.
Across from him, in all likelihood, will be Codie Taylor — a man Marx has been running into since their Crusaders and All Blacks meetings began stacking up over the better part of a decade.
“We’ve (Codie and I) obviously played against each other for a good number of years from the Crusaders to the All Blacks, and I have the utmost respect for him,” said Marx.
“He’s a great rugby player, and I like the way he plays the game. He is extremely physical and good at the set pieces. We’ll have a bit of a laugh and a beer after the game, but on the day we both know we’ve got a job to do.”
He was careful not to make it a two-man story.
“All their hookers are explosive players, and they are very good with ball in hand, on defence, and at set piece, so it’s going to be a great challenge for our hookers on the weekend. All three of them are extremely good, and if given the opportunity I’m looking forward to it.”
The most recent of the seventeen was the best of them. The Springboks put 43 points on New Zealand in Wellington and won by 33, the heaviest defeat in All Blacks history. Marx, echoing scrumhalf Grant Williams earlier in the week, wants none of it carried into Johannesburg.
“I definitely don’t think we have the edge because of last year. That’s in the past and we’ve got to deal with what is now in front of us.
“We know the All Blacks will come at us guns blazing, and we’ve worked extremely hard. We can’t rely on what happened in the past to take us through this game. We’ve got to make sure that we rely on all the work over the last couple of weeks to give us the best chance on the weekend.”
The venue does at least offer something reliable. The Springboks have won 39 of their 56 Tests at Ellis Park, the ground where a home Test against New Zealand still feels closest to an occasion rather than a fixture, and where the noise arrives long before the whistle.
That matters more than usual this year. Springboks vs All Blacks is normally a one-off, settled inside eighty minutes and packed away for a season, but this time the series runs across four weekends and three of the four venues have wildly different histories attached — Cape Town has returned five wins from six, FNB Stadium just one from three. Ellis Park is the one the Boks know best, and it comes first.
Marx sits on 27 Test tries, more than any forward in Springbok history and fifth on the all-time national list, five short of Jaque Fourie. Six of them have come against the All Blacks. He mentioned none of it.
What he mentioned was 64 or 65 million people, a job to be done, and a team sheet he has not yet seen. Seventeen Tests deep into this rivalry, he still talks about the next one as though it might not include him. Erasmus reads out the team on Thursday.
