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The identity struggle the Springboks will have with Tony Brown
By Ben Smith
The appointment of ex-All Black first five Tony Brown as one of the new Springboks assistant coaches raised eyebrows as a surprise move, but one that has generated excitement.
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Do the South Africans need help from Kiwis on how to play attacking rugby? Perhaps the appointment says so. Brown is one of the more innovative minds in the game in that regard.
But the most intriguing part of this appointment will be how much sway Brown will have over what plays the Springboks run and where, and whether they will try to become a front-foot attacking side, instead of a reactive one.
While they have demonstrated different game plans with varying degrees of intent to use the ball, when push comes to shove they revert to type in big games against the rest of the best.
The Springboks are a dangerous counter-attacking unit. They love broken fields from kick contests and prey on opposition errors. But that style is reactive, relies on a rock solid defence first, and a Sun Tzu mentality of letting your opposition make the mistakes and being the one to avoid them.
During the big knockout win over France at the Rugby World Cup, Les Blues were undone by their own incompetence and this strategy by South Africa.
A spilled aerial ball bounced right into the path of Kurt-Lee Arendse for a gift seven points. Another dropped high ball resulted in a try for Damian de Allende. A poor handling error resulted in Jesse Kriel threading a grubber kick in for Cheslin Kolbe on the counter phase.
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When it was all said and done, 19 critical points were thrown away by the French. The Springboks took full advantage, but France were their own worst enemies. And that’s the game Erasmus wants to play for the most part.
Low risk, low error rugby, playing power when needed through the maul and scrum and trying to open up a team through the air for counter opportunities.
If Tony Brown wants to open up the playbook, play more possession-based rugby, try something more complicated than a De Allende hit-up on first phase, how long does it last if South Africa become an error-strewn circus again?
This is the conundrum for the Springboks and the oncoming struggle for autonomy between Brown and Erasmus. Will the big man be the director or the dictator? The Lion doesn’t need advice from Kiwi sheep after all.
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However, if Brown does change their game the move could certainly pay off as the Springboks search for success outside of World Cups in 2024.
In every full version of the Rugby Championship under Erasmus and Nienaber, they’ve lost the title to New Zealand in 2018, 2021 and 2022. They’ve been under 40 per cent against the other big five nations in between World Cup years.
Their game outside of the major tournament has simply not worked.
If they win more trophies and a find higher win rate than 62 per cent, they’ll finally become a historically great side, rather than one that has a historically great achievement, back-to-back World Cups.
That risk is worth taking and giving Brown a shot to shape the Springboks with a New Zealand view could be the answer. Just don’t tear him down too much if it all falls apart.
Bok coaches never really had the time to develop the backline atrack. 18 months out from 2019 RWC Rassie took over with just enough time to get the best players going.
With the Lions tour, Boks almost couldnt put a team on the field with all the infections so it was actually surprising they won the series. But two year were lost and embedding backline attacking structures was again put on the back burner.
For the first time ever the Boks have the luxury to start developing their backline attack for full 4 year cycle and Tony Brown is a welcome addition to add that dimension.
But Ben it must suck that a team that played two WC’s less than the AB’s have won more than them.
Bennie girl already wetting her panties in terror….
I think you fundamentally misunderstand the Springboks and Rassie. Rassie first coached the cheetahs and with that team he used multiphase attacks with planned moves coming off second, third and fourth phase. He used his light system way back then and then with the stormers he did the same. Munster, when coached by him, were exciting to watch and opened up defences with strong attacking play. The Springboks are pragmatic, they play whats in front of them. They played the games against NZ in the final and England in the semi with a basic game plan because it was wet. In every other game they ran the ball a significant amount. Against France they even turned down the three on several occassions in search of the try and ran the ball a lot during that match. Against Scotland they attacked for large portions of the match. Against Ireland they were not allowed to develop phases because Ireland kept winning turnovers but they ran plenty of ball in that game only losing narrowly to a side who were better at retaining the ball. Rassie has brought in Brown to develop their attacking game further because he knows with law changes the Boks need to adapt further and winning the next world cup will need a higher ball in play time and a team that can retain the ball more and break down defences with good movement and attacking plays. Rassie is not a dictator but rather an innovator open to ideas and with Brown they will collaborate on how to get the best out of their players.
so SA teams even know how to attack?
I love how BS presumes to know what Erasmus wants to do.
And how he tries to create an image of a potential power struggle - Rassie a dictator.
This is childish amateurism at its absolute purest.
Write about the ABs rather Ben. Something you might know more about.
I believe that if the players buy into tony’s plan and couching,the boks will be a pleasure to watch. Tony is the right guy for the boks,yes they will sometimes fail and must fail to stay humble but don’t take it iut on tony because he’s not on the field with the ball.
The Springboks definitely have the personnel to become a great attacking team, but playing with the ball is the exact opposite of what has worked so well for them.
Rassie is generally a step ahead, maybe he sees a change coming in laws or interpretations that would favour retaining the ball.
Also you’d rather have Tony Brown on your team than be playing against him if he found his way to England, Scotland, Australia, Fiji or somewhere like that. Definitely a great recruitment move, it will be interesting to see how committed they are to embracing a more expansive and possession orientated game.
Foster-No…Razor-No…Rassie-Lekker Mate.
“Ben Smith” is just a moniker gents. RP must pay him handsomely to write stuff that’ll garner enough views and comments from irate Springboks supporters. He was in full flow during the RWC.
I don’t know this writer, but I'm sure I’ve been around since he has been in diapers.
I watched the great 1970 All Black team tour South Africa and every Bok test match after that. I I think I know a little bit about rugby.
The writer states that the Boks only win by exploiting the mistakes of the opposition.
Wow. What a revelation. Is that not the whole aim of rugby? To get the other team to make mistakes? I.e. on defence etc.
The great All Black teams always made you pay when you made a mistake. So does the French and England.
The Boks have been the most innovative team in the world since Erasmus and Nienaber took over.
PS - A note to Rugby Pass… I understand that you need to blood new rookie writers, but surely you have better candidates than this Smith bloke?