The All Blacks brand is back in business. So, too, is that of the Springboks. Both teams have been mobbed at hotel and training fields in Kashiwa and Fukuoka. Television crews clamour for their every appearance, microphones are poised to catch sound-bites. New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen was moved to reveal after yet more gushing adulation that he was not "God, just a normal human being".

In Japan, these players are rock stars with studs on. New Zealand against South Africa is among the most potent and deep-rooted rivalries in rugby, every bit as fierce and unremitting as El Clasico or a Boca-River Plate derby. Recent years may have seen the competitiveness between them wane, but put all that on the back-burner. The behemoths are in town, ready to face off on Saturday in Yokohama, a pool match in name only. It is the sort of contest this World Cup needs; a game that will resonate beyond the confines of the tournament itself.

"It is the Test match that every kid wants to play in," said All Black lock Sam Whitelock - a two-time World Cup winner - at the team base in downtown Tokyo following a morning training session. "Some of my greatest memories are when I was a little fellow waking in the middle of the night to watch those matches."

Rugby is as guilty of fixture overload as any sport. These two rugby tribes used to be kept apart for five or six years at a time between series, licking wounds, nursing grievances, harbouring grudges. These days, through the Rugby Championship, familiarity has bred a certain "familiarity" - even weariness. This Saturday, though, is different.