Springboks return to London for headline clash at Wembley Stadium this Autumn

International rugby coaching heavyweights Rassie Erasmus and Eddie Jones will go head-to-head in London this autumn, as South Africa and Japan lock horns at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 1st November. The fixture marks the first rugby event to be held at the iconic north London venue since 2016, when the Springboks and Barbarian F.C. played out a thrilling 31-31 draw.

South Africa, two-time defending Rugby World Cup champions, are no strangers to hosting fixtures in London having defeated Wales 41-13 in June 2024 at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.

Erasmus’ side have also claimed victories over England (29-20, Nov 2024) and New Zealand (35-7, Aug 2023) in London over the last couple of years, with raucous support coming from the city’s vibrant expat community of South Africans every time the Springboks arrive in the English capital.

“We are delighted to be starting off our tour of the Northern Hemisphere with a match against Japan at the iconic Wembley Stadium, especially ahead of a challenging Castle Lager Outgoing Tour which kicks off a week later with the first official Test of the November window against France in Paris,” said South Africa’s Head Coach, Erasmus.

Erasmus is widely regarded as one of the greatest rugby coaches of all time having led South Africa to Rugby World Cup triumphs in 2019 and 2023. The Springboks head coach also has a series victory over the British & Irish Lions in 2021, and two Rugby Championship wins in 2019 and 2024 to his name.

“The last time the Boks played at Wembley was in 2016 against the Barbarians, in a tense affair which went down to the wire in a 31-31 drawn match.

“The Brave Blossoms are renowned for playing fast, attacking, high-tempo rugby – which has been prevalent in our last two encounters, before and during the Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019.

“We have had fantastic support from our fans in the UK for our fixtures in London over the past few years and I am sure this match will be no different, especially being at one of the most famous sporting venues in the world.”

This will be only the fourth meeting between South Africa and Japan – with the Springboks winning the last two encounters (both in 2019), following the ‘Miracle of Brighton’ in 2015 which saw Japan’s Brave Blossoms claim a remarkable 34-32 victory at the American Express Community Stadium.

That historic result, regarded as the greatest upset in the history of the Rugby World Cup, was South Africa’s first-ever defeat to a Tier 2 nation and changed the landscape of Japanese rugby forever.

Head Coach of Japan for that match in 2015, Jones returned to the Brave Blossoms in 2024 after stints in charge of England and Australia.

The Tasmanian-born coach is another of the most-decorated leaders in the history of rugby. He won the Rugby World Cup in 2007 as a technical advisor to the Springboks, reached two more World Cup finals with Australia (2003) and England (2019), claimed the Six Nations Championship three times (2016, 2017, and 2020) with England, including one Grand Slam (2016), and lifted the Pacific Nations Cup in 2014 with Japan.

Jones, named World Rugby Coach of the Year in 2017, is relishing the prospect of another clash with the World Champions.

“The game in Brighton ten years ago changed rugby in Japan from being a minor sport to a boom sport,” he said. “Playing against the Boks is the dream of every young Japanese player.”

Masato Tsuchida, President of JRFU, added: “Ten years since the ‘Miracle of Brighton’, it’s a great honour to once again play South Africa on English soil. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved in making this game happen.

“Our victory over the Springboks at Rugby World Cup 2015 was a historic match that redefined the history of Japanese rugby, and marked the beginning of a new era for the JRFU.

“Since defeating Zimbabwe at the 1991 World Cup, the Brave Blossoms had not secured a single World Cup victory until that historic upset in Brighton. Our win over South Africa was achieved through the unwavering spirit and relentless training of the Japanese team at the time.

“We now look forward to sharing the current state of Japanese rugby, which has evolved through the determination inherited from that victory.”

Wembley Stadium has hosted 11 rugby matches over the years, starting with England’s 26-13 win over Canada in 1992.

Since the venue was rebuilt and reopened in 2007, four international rugby fixtures have been played at Wembley, including two Rugby World Cup matches in 2015 (New Zealand 26-16 Argentina, Ireland 44-10 Romania) which both drew capacity crowds of just under 90,000 people.