The rugby revolution that Tony Brown is brewing at the Boks

If there was one thing that stood out thus far in the Springboks’ short international season in 2024, it is the influence of assistant coach Tony Brown.

The evolution of the Bok team, stunted by Covid and a bizarre British and Irish Lions tour where survival and success were first priorities, was managed superbly well by Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber on their way to claiming back-to-back World Cups in 2019 and 2023.

And it was after the 2019 victory that they realised they had to change, had to develop their game beyond the brute force and accurate kicking that had sustained Bok rugby over the years.

The Covid year and Lions tour stunted that, putting pause to the plans they had but with Nienaber and Felix Jones’ departure after six years in the coaching team, Brown was a natural fit for where Erasmus wants to go.

The idea is simple, really. The Boks have established themselves as a masterful team that sits on top of the world, but over the past few decades they have struggled to shake off the moniker that they are a tournament team, capable of the big moments in knockout games, but unable to dominate between World Cups.

And where would you go if you were Erasmus, having conquered Japan and France in the World Cup. The desire is there to make sure the Boks dominate World Rugby for the decade to come, but that can only be done if there is significant change to their attack.

Think of it this way - there is nothing particularly wrong with the attack as it stands. The Boks possess a keen rugby mind in Willie le Roux, scrum capped wingers by the bucketload that can step and astound and midfield options that are among the most envied in world rugby.

There is growing depth in every position on the field, and Erasmus has taken the barbed talk of transformation out of the debate. In every sense Springbok rugby is very healthy right now.

But to dominate between World Cups, the Boks need to evolve. Teams work out your game plan and come up with counters, and with a chasing pack, it is just a matter of time before they catch up to you.

RUGBY VISIONARY

That is where Brown comes in. A rugby visionary who has played in Japan, New Zealand and South Africa, he may seem like a strange fit for Erasmus’ vision, but the bonds were formed in his time at the Stormers where he and Erasmus connected.

Being a rugby thinker, it was an immediate hit friendship and listening to Brown you can understand why.

Take this innocuous interview done a few years ago for a New Zealand site - The Rugby Site - and think back to Chasing the Sun 1 and 2 and the way Erasmus spoke about players. The main thing needs to be the main thing - and culture and character supersedes talent in the Bok line up.

Now listen to Brown talking about culture in a totally unrelated interview when he was still coaching with Japan. The similarities are eerie.

Brown started his international journey with Panasonic in Japan, where he was thrust into an environment as one of just three overseas players, and had to adapt to the culture very quickly.

“It sorta blew me away a bit, it was very hard to change, but when you did achieve a bit of change, the results were huge and I guess that is where I started to fall in love with coaching and how you can influence players to perform as a team,” he explained.

RUGBY PHILOSOPHY

Brown formed his philosophy around the way the cultures reacted to team success, and quickly learnt what worked and what didn’t. Exposure to three distinctly different rugby cultures made it a lot easier to form his own.

“It is going there and observing the different culture, and how different players prepare and different coaches coach. If you just sit back and watch, then you can get a really good understanding of how you can help, and that’s what I did (in Japan),” Brown said.

“Then when I went to South Africa, it was completely different as well. The way I coach now, and my philosophy of rugby is built around the three countries I played in.”

Philosophy and team culture is important to him, and it is clear his thinking aligns with the Bok path over the past six years.

“Where I started with Otago, it has always been talked about that there is a special culture down here. I think that is my first philosophy, that everything is around the team first, and everything has to be around the team environment and creating that culture. If we can create that team culture, then the team is going to be successful, and the players are going to enjoy their rugby, and you create friendships for life really,” he smiles.

“It is just every single player buying in 100 per cent to the vision, something greater than themselves. If a player comes into a team and buys in, and leaves their individual ambitions aside, and buys into the team ambition, that's when you know that the culture is good and the environment is good.

GOOD RUGBY CULTURE

But how do you create a good rugby culture in a team?

“You need every single player to buy into your vision, and if it is something that is greater than themselves, something they can be part of. You have to make sure to make every single player in the team feel that they are adding something to your vision, and if you can do that, then they are going to want to buy in.

“If you have a group of leaders that are going to buy in and help create that culture you want to make, you are going to be a lot more successful in creating a good team culture.”

Now you may say the Boks’ culture has been working pretty successfully but Brown has come in and tried to change things. The Boks of 2024 have played - in their two tests thus far - very differently to the Boks of 2023 that conquered the world with one point victories.

And change, especially in a high-pressure environment, is difficult. So you need the buy in.

“You have to have your own vision, and you have to talk to the senior players and get their buy-in on where you are going. If you can get alignment with that, then it is easy for them to influence the other guys and get the buy-in from the other guys to commit to the vision.

A big part of the culture is using the history of the team, and using past experiences, because if the players know a bit about the history and understand the history, then they want to try and create their own history and that is important as well.”

CHARACTER OF PLAYERS VITAL

And when talking about players, it is clear he and Erasmus are on the same page in this regard.

“The character of the players. You are better off with the lesser player who is better for the team, than a player who is a star but is not a team man,” Brown said.

“One hundred per cent of the time, I would take the character over the star player, if he is not willing to buy into the side. Otherwise that would just cause massive rifts in the team. One rotten egg will break everything you are trying to do, because one guy will get another three to go with him, and then you split your team in half, and that will break the culture you are trying to establish.”

And Brown is highly rated - and won’t tinker too much, although the difference in the Loftus test was rather stark for some appetites.

It was a stark reminder that plans don’t come together overnight. As good as the Boks were, they left at least five tries on the park, and made too many errors, all things that Brown and the other coaches would be hard at work with.

Former All Black James Parsons believes that Brown won’t change too much of the Bok DNA, but rather add to it.

“The Springboks are so strong, you don’t want to change too much, but it’s strike plays which is Tony Brown’s kettle of fish,” he said on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“Phase play and kick strategy will remain pretty similar but their strike plays (will be different).

“What I mean by strike plays, if you remember the 2015 Super Rugby final, Lima Sopoaga spun his back to the opposition and kicked the ball over his head from a four-man lineout.

“He loves a four-man lineout and the reason he loves a four-man lineout is that all the players can run the same lines and you can have three or four variations.

“From a defensive point of view, it looks the same every time, but you don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe there will be a four-man lineout strike, some different attacking methods off scrum.

“The thing with Tony Brown is that he is one step ahead. There will be something fresh and nine times out of 10 it comes off a lineout for him.”

MASSIVE DIFFERENCE AT LOFTUS

Considering how the Boks changed at Loftus, one looks back at the previous World Cup, and thanks to twitter rugby analysts like Hugh Griffin and Rugbycology, there are some stark differences.

Griffin notes that the Boks were under 100 passes in the three playoff games in the World Cup - with 82 v France, 67 v England and 84 v New Zealand. In contrast - but remembering the two tests this year haven’t been as high-pressure as the playoff games in the World Cup, the Boks made 119 passes against Wales and 175 against Ireland.

That may be one stat, but another, by Rugbycology, makes it even more interesting to read.

“Over the past 3 years in all comps, the Boks managed a High Risk Loss per cent of 15.64 per cent, the lowest in the world. High risk loss is the per cent times a team's attack ends in them losing a turnover or penalty,” the site said on Twitter.

“Against Ireland , they conceded a High Risk possession loss during 24 per cent of all attack play. So basically 1 in 4 balls are lost to a turnover or penalty. For reference, the Wallabies at 20.66 per cent have the worst HRL per cent over the last 3 years.

“When you run more and kick less,you also tend to not move forward as much as when you kick, partly because you possess before you can exit. The Boks exit per cent over the past 3 years was 59.3 per cent, only France had a better exit per cent.

“Against Ireland, the Boks only recorded an exit rate of 48 per cent This is the per centage times your attack ends a field zone or more up from where it starts. To me it seems the Boks are pushing the envelope a bit and will soon look to find a balance.”

ADD TO BOK ATTACK

Brown also made it clear that he wouldn’t tinker too much when he was appointed, citing Henry Honiball as his favourite Springbok and vowed to add, not subtract to the Bok attack. Clearly the Loftus test shows the thinking going forward, but that more refinement is necessary before they hit their straps. What is clear though is that Brown has the buy-in of Erasmus, and by virtue of that, the buy-in of the players. There simply isn’t any turning back.

“The Springboks have got a massively proud history, and for me to come in and try to be a part of that and add to that is a huge honour,” Brown noted when he was appointed.

“What the Springboks have done over the last two World Cups is massively impressive, and the way they are able to win big games of rugby – and the key moments in games of rugby – has been a pleasure to watch.”

“Once I get more time with the players, it will become clearer how we need to play,” Brown said. “I always coach with a defence coach.

“Can I make a massive difference around how the Springboks attack? One hundred per cent I can. I really believe in the way that the South Africans play the game, that if they add a few little things around the attacking side, then they can be really dominant on attack as well – like we are at defence, scrum, line-out and maul.

“Obviously the Boks have their own identity, and their physicality is a huge part of the game. The team also has amazing athletes, with some of the best in the world. So, there are certainly things I can take from having played in New Zealand and having coached there and in Japan, but that said we’ll never change the DNA of the team. I’d simply like to add a few elements to the way we play the game.”

NEED TO BE MORE CLINICAL

This week Brown said he was satisfied with the way the game was played at Loftus, but the Boks needed to be more clinical if they were to reach their goal.

“There were some really good signs with the way we spread the ball wide early on, but we need to be more clinical in the next game,” said Brown.

“We had a few chances, but we didn’t execute as well as we would have liked to, so that is one of the things we need to improve on this week. That said, the more the guys play, the better they will be, so hopefully that will improve with time.”

“We always plan the attack around the teams that we're playing, so we've put a lot of time and effort into analysing Ireland around how they defend, how they attack the breakdown, so we saw a few opportunities,” he said.

“Ultimately, we always look to plan around the team we're playing.It was a really tough test match, both teams were going pretty hard at the breakdowns and there was a lot of messy rugby.

“But the things we're trying to do on attack had some really good signs, especially in the first half where we created a lot of momentum and width and the boys were able to apply a lot of pressure and score a pretty good try early on.

BIG FORWARDS IN TRAMLINES

The added value of using big forwards in the tramlines like Siya Kolisi and Pieter-Steph du Toit is a key feature, and Brown wants to exploit that.

“Obviously, the South African team has some outstanding loose forwards, it's not a new or different tactic, other teams do the same. It's more around getting the best out of the players we have out there,” Brown said.

“Pieter-Steph and Siya have got amazing skill sets. They're big players, pretty dynamic with ball in hand so it's about giving them the license and freedom to do what they do well and the rest of the team complementing that.

"We're always developing. Our attack only works if the forwards are good.

"They need to be able to get gainline for us and carry the ball, pass, clean out. They've got so many demands on them. It's been nice to keep challenging them to be able to move the ball and hopefully we're going to continue to get better through the year.”

Right now it is easier to excuse the mistakes because the Boks won at Loftus, but change is often painful, and Bok fans will not want their team to lose at all in the coming season. Brown knows this and knows the amount of pressure on the World Champions in their own backyard.

But he also knows that the Boks need to evolve, in order to dominate, and that takes a certain blind belief in what you are doing is right. Erasmus has been proved right at two World Cups, but dominating between World Cups is a lot harder, as there are so many more factors involved than readying a team for a six week tournament.

The point is - Brown is here to stay - and the Boks have committed to change. How they embrace it, and how quickly they evolve will be the key element to see if it is a success or not.

But it certainly will spice up the conversation around the team in the coming months.