Match predictor

South Africa v New Zealand

Set a scoreline and see where it sits among the 5,000 simulated runs behind this fixture. Ratings as at 2026-08-23.

Your scoreline
South Africa
New Zealand

The steppers skip 1, 2 and 4. Points come in fives, threes and twos with a conversion needing a try in front of it, so no match has ever finished on any of them.

Where that lands
New Zealand by 75+levelSouth Africa by 75+

20.3% of runs finished in this bin — within 2 points either way.

48 points is around the 52nd percentile of the total — the middle run scored 47.

Those two figures are separate readings and are not multiplied together. The simulation draws the gap and the amount of scoring independently, so one bar of the histogram covers many scorelines and the payload holds nothing about which of them came up with which gap.

What the model says
South Africa 48.8%New Zealand 48.2%average 2325

Your pick disagrees with the model on the winner. Nothing here scores that. The model’s gap is an average over both winners and yours is one afternoon, so the two are different kinds of number rather than one being right. How the model works.

Why South Africa are not favoured

Starting from an even match and adding what the model reads, in percentage points of win probability. Positive favours South Africa, negative favours New Zealand.

Even match50.0%
Rating gap-2.5 pp

South Africa 2036, New Zealand 2045 — 9 points, favouring New Zealand

Venue+7.1 pp

South Africa are at home

Form and context-5.8 pp

Recent results, head-to-head record and rest days, as the XGBoost heads weigh them. Deliberately capped, so it can nudge the rating but never overrule it.

South Africa win48.8%
The fixture
Ground
DHL Stadium, Cape Town
Elevation
25 m
Kick-off
2026-08-29, 15:10 UTC
Forecast
14.6°C, 19 km/h wind, 3.0 mm rain
Competition
International

111 meetings South Africa 43, New Zealand 64, 4 drawn. Last 2026: South Africa 16–33 New Zealand.

None of this reaches the model. Weather is not a feature, team selection is not a feature and the record is already inside both ratings, so the probability above does not move because any of it changed.

South Africa against New Zealand, as a shareable card

Instagram has no way for a website to post on your behalf and does not unfurl links, so a post there is the saved image with a caption. The copied link unfurls into the same card on X, WhatsApp, Slack and Facebook.

Rugby Tournament Predictor — unofficial, and not affiliated with any union, club or competition. About and sourcesForecasts are probabilities, not predictions of one result.

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