For a few weeks, the Springboks held two very different claims to being the best team in rugby. One was the Webb Ellis Cup, won in Paris in 2023 and safely theirs until the next Rugby World Cup. The other was the Raeburn Shield. That one could disappear on any given Test day.
On Sunday, 27 September, it did.
Australia beat South Africa 42–38 in Perth, taking the Shield from the Boks in a match that became almost ridiculous by the end. The Wallabies had led 42–17. Then the Springboks came charging back, while a succession of cards left Australia with just 11 players on the field. Somehow, the Wallabies held on.
If you haven’t heard of the Raeburn Shield, the idea is wonderfully simple: beat the holder and you become the holder. Every international match they play puts it on the line. A draw leaves it with the defending team.
Follow that chain backwards and it reaches the first rugby international, when Scotland beat England at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh in 1871. It’s a lineal title, much like the idea of beating the person who beat the person in boxing. It isn’t a World Rugby championship, although there is now a physical shield that gives this long-running piece of rugby history something you can actually hold.
South Africa know what it feels like to hold both titles. When the Boks beat New Zealand 12–11 in the 2023 World Cup final, they won their fourth Webb Ellis Cup and took the Raeburn Shield from the All Blacks in the same match. The two titles eventually parted ways. The World Cup stayed with South Africa; the Shield kept moving, as it always does.
They came together again this August. New Zealand arrived in Cape Town holding the lineal title, and the Boks’ 33–26 win on 29 August brought it back to South Africa. The Springboks defended it twice more against the All Blacks: 29–24 in Johannesburg, then 43–28 in Baltimore to seal the four-Test series. By the time they reached Perth, they were World Cup champions, series winners and Raeburn Shield holders.
That made the loss sting, even if the Shield was hardly the first thing on everyone’s mind as the Boks tried to rescue the game. South Africa had made 13 changes to the starting side that won in Baltimore. Australia took its chances, built a huge lead and then survived a finish that seemed determined to undo all its earlier work. The Springboks’ fightback showed their depth and nerve. It also left an awkward question: how did they end up needing such an extraordinary comeback in the first place?
The Boks remain the reigning Rugby World Cup champions. Nothing that happened in Perth changes what they achieved in 2023. But the Raeburn Shield tells a different, more restless story about rugby. You can be on top of the world when you arrive at the stadium and watch someone else leave with the title.
Australia did exactly that. The Shield is theirs now, and their next Test will put it up for grabs again. That’s the charm of the Raeburn Shield: we’ll get another shot.
