Brown a 'breath of fresh air' since joining Boks - Pollard

The arrival of Tony Brown as the Springboks newest assistant coach has been a massive positive for the side, with flyhalf Handre Pollard calling him a “breath of fresh air” in how the team thinks about its attacking style going forward.

Glimpses of Brown’s attacking style were seen in the Bok win over Wales and a huge emphasis has come in recent weeks in getting the Boks to see space quicker, and then to utilise it to their advantage to unleash their speedy backs in order to score points.

And while Brown’s influence may not be seen that well this weekend and is a work in progress, replacing Felix Jones in the side and taking charge of the attack has already stirred up some new fire in the Bok belly, especially as the Boks look to transition to a better attack given their impressive outside backs.

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Pollard said that he had clicked immediately with Brown and while Jones was a valuable member of the management, Brown’s unique way of viewing the game had been good for players.

And while he had not heard Brown’s comments that he wanted to make Pollard a more gain-line attacking player over the course of his stay with the Boks, it wasn’t something the Bok pivot rejected at all.

“It sounds good. I really enjoy Tony, he is really a breath of fresh air for us. We were privileged to have Felix and he was brilliant, but Tony just thinks about the game differently. He has experience all over the world and we enjoy him.

“If that gets us going a bit more over the gain line, then great. We have our plans for this weekend and we will try and implement them.”

'NOT BE A ONE-DIMENSIONAL TEAM'

Pollard went a bit further, saying that Brown had made them think differently about how to attack space and not just rely on their physicality to open gaps.

“With the background he has had and the teams he has coached in the past, he has had to look for space in a different way than we are used to. We always rely on our strength and physicality to get us across the gain line. I think we as a group are at a point now where we can use more of our skillset and not be a one-dimensional team.

“Of course, we are never going to go away from our physicality, but the way he sees space and the way he sees our guys using our strengths to create more space for our outside backs, I think that is exciting.

“Against good defences like Ireland that is not always going to be the case, but if we can create a couple more opportunities for our outside backs, that is always good for us.”

While the Boks would be looking for a solid performance from him in the 10 jersey, and Pollard more than proved his worth in the goalkicking department in the World Cup, the pivot believes it will take more than one good performance to win the match this weekend.

“Everybody has a massive role to play. My responsibility is to drive the team forward, make sure we play in the right areas of the game. Everybody has their thing to do, and I don’t think one position is more important than the other one. These days rugby is definitely a team game. We all contribute to do our best towards the common team goal.”

But there certainly is an excitement building ahead of the match that may well see Brown’s new ideas come to the fore, and the Boks will be hoping to exploit any space they get on Saturday.