The Springboks kicked off their 2026 international campaign with a high-scoring 80-31 win over the Barbarians at a receptive Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
Sometimes Barbarians games conform to the expectation of razzle-dazzle rugby, and sometimes they don’t. This one definitely belonged in the former category, with the two teams sharing 10 tries between them in a first half that was non-stop entertainment and action as both the respective defensive systems struggled to keep their opponents at bay in a game high on optimism and ambition from both sets of players.
A perfect start to the Springbok season 🇿🇦✅#BARvRSA | #SSRugby pic.twitter.com/4GMON1TRe6
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 20, 2026
In the second half, the game lost its momentum a bit until a late flurry from the Boks in the last 10 minutes ensured they equalled their number of first-half points, 40, with the same number in the second. In all, they scored 12 tries in the game, with left wing Edwill van der Merwe completing a hat-trick, with a brace coming in the first half.
Although the final scoreline might not suggest so, this Barbarians team was far more competitive than the one that lost 54-7 in Cape Town at the corresponding stage of last season, although it has to be said that there were light and day differences in the conditions.
With the weather set fair, it was set up for what was delivered, and the Barbarians’ big No 8 Miracle Fai’ilagi, the Argentina flyhalf Tomas Albornoz, and the strongly built centres Alex Nankivell and Virmi Vakatawa, plus the slippery captain and scrumhalf TJ Perenara, sounded some early warnings to the Boks and posed some questions about their defence.
MUCH QUICKER TO GET ON THE BOARD THIS TIME
It took the Barbarians a significantly quicker time to get on the board in the game, with the composite team quickly bouncing back from an early try to wing Van der Merwe that was masterfully converted from touch by the other wing Cheslin Kolbe when Albornoz set up his midfield in the space that was needed for Vakatawa to go over near the posts.
Albornoz levelled the scores at 7-all after nine minutes with his conversion, and the Boks might have had cause to sweat more than they did in their halftime huddle had it not been for the two yellow cards in quick succession shown to Barbarians players. First, Perenara was pinged for a high hit, and then it was the turn of Fai’ilagi to join him on the side.
Perenara was carded in the buildup to the Bok second try, which featured a neat little touch pass from flyhalf Quan Horn, who had a decent game in his new position and would have felt he’d delivered what was expected from the selection. It set Pieter-Steph du Toit up for one of his trademark charges down the right touchline, and then, when the attack was transferred back in the other direction, Du Toit was up to drive over.
It was when Fai’ilagi was carded for interfering with Williams at the base of a loose scrum, thus reducing the Barbarians to 13 men, that the floodgates really opened. The Boks scored three tries in that time - one to Van der Merwe, who was set up with a long pass into space, then No 8 Jasper Wiese ran onto a lineout throw to a position where the Barbarians' No 8 would probably have been standing were he on the field, and then there was a debut try for 20-year-old lock Riley Norton.
Like Horn, Norton should feel he did all that was expected of him in what was his first feel of the green and gold, and coach Rassie Erasmus’ confidence in him can be ascertained by the fact that he spent the entire game on the field.
GOOD BARBARIANS PASSAGE FOLLOWED BOK FLURRY
By the time that flurry was over and the Barbarians’ numbers had been restored, the Boks were 35-7 up and it looked like the game was heading for a massacre. However, these Barbarians showed they hadn’t just come to South Africa for the party as they mounted an impressive fightback that saw them take the game back to 35-26 not long before halftime.
Kolbe, who was one of the bright features for the Boks with his immaculate place kicking from all angles up to that point, then re-established some daylight between the teams when he took up scrumhalf after Williams was yellow-carded for a cynical infringement. From a scrum set up near the posts, Kolbe wrong-footed the Barbarians' defence as their scrum retreated, and he scored halfway between the posts and the right touchline.
Ironically, that was the only kick in the half that Kolbe missed, and he missed only one in the second half as he finished the game with 25 points of his own. The game was punctuated by too many cards, with fullback Aphelele Fassi following his Sharks teammate Williams in being yellow-carded in the second. The Barbarians’ Welsh hooker Elliot Dee was also carded to go with the ones in the first half, and it helped to contribute to the game being stretched out to beyond two hours.
The game was maybe too much of a Barbarians-style loose spectacle to read too much into it, but the Boks did the basics well and were spurred by some strong individual showings.
Wiese, in particular, proved prominent as a carrier in the first half along with skipper Siya Kolisi and the indefatigable Du Toit, while Andre-Hugo Venter would have enjoyed his first feel of the Bok jersey in a while, and his replacement, JJ Kotze, scored the eighth Bok try with his first touch of the ball when he came on as a replacement.
The winners of the YesPlay! Cup 🏆🇿🇦
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 20, 2026
More silverware for the Springbok cabinet 👏#BARvRSA | #SSRugby pic.twitter.com/8yUIPznbNT
To their credit, and again this wasn’t reflected by the end score, the Barbarians showed a lot of pluck even deep in the game when the score started mounting up and the Bok coaches will feel that their players were presented with just the right amount of opposition for it to be a beneficial workout for them - well at least for those who will be in action when the real business of the new test season comes to town, meaning Johannesburg, two weeks from now with the visit of England.
SCORES
Springboks 80 - Tries: Edwill van der Merwe 3, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jasper Wiese, Riley Norton, Cheslin Kolbe, JJ Kotze, Faf de Klerk, Jesse Kriel, Andre Esterhuizen and Zachary Porthen; Conversions: Cheslin Kolbe 9 and Vusi Moyo.
Barbarians 31 - Tries: Andrew Kellaway 2, Frank Molina, TJ Perenara and Virmi Vakatawa; Conversions: Tomas Albornoz 3.