Wynne Gray is as excited as ever for the arrival of the Springboks and the Tri-Nations in The New Zealand Herald.

"All Blacks v Springboks. New Zealand against South Africa. Do the pulses quicken quite as much about duels between the superpowers as they did for those who watched the epic series in New Zealand in 1937, 1956 and 1981? "Perhaps they do, but in a much different way from those infrequent visits of the Boks. Since the arrival of professional rugby in 1996, the men from South Africa have played annual tests in New Zealand. "We have seen some extraordinary duels in that time in New Zealand, prefaced of course the year before by the controversy from that memorable World Cup shootout between the same sides."