Preview: New Zealand versus South Africa a fitting rivalry to decide 2023 Rugby World Cup

By the time the 2027 Rugby World Cup kicks off in Australia, it'll have been 24 years since the Webb Ellis Cup has resided anywhere outside of New Zealand or South Africa.

With the game’s big two contesting the 2023 final tonight, it’ll be the fifth tournament in a row that’s been won by either the All Blacks or Springboks, and for whichever side does, it’ll be a record fourth World Cup win.

That record suggests the Rugby World Cup has become a closed shop for potential winners, something that the evidence of this tournament strongly contradicts.

Were South Africa to win, it would be hard to argue against this being the greatest World Cup title we’ve ever seen; their pool with Ireland and Scotland saw three of the top five sides in the world fighting it out for two-quarter-final spots, before the Springboks saw off hosts France and 2019 finalists England to book their place in the final against the three-time champions New Zealand.

If anyone is to stop their run to a second World Cup title in a row, it could be themselves.

There has always been the air of the mad scientists about both Erasmus and head coach Jacques Nienaber, who look at the game differently to their contemporaries.

While most countries named 33-man squads with a broadly similar positional profile, South Africa ripped up that playbook. The going rate in most World Cup squads was three hookers, but South Africa chose two. When one of those – Malcolm Marx – went down injured in the opener against Scotland, they chose to call up an out-half in his place.

Where others brought three scrum-halves in their extended squad, South Africa brought four, only one of whom is even named in their matchday squad for the final.

The wildest of their experiments has been the 7:1