When the Springboks were threatening to run the Wallabies off their feet with their all-inclusive and total rugby strategy in the early stages of last week’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash in Johannesburg a colleague commented how fortuitous the timing of this feature would be.
Everyone was raving about how good the Boks looked, how impressive they were in creating space and then playing into it, and how clinical they were in finishing off their attacks. There was the perfect blend of kicking and running and passing and the forwards were carrying the ball strongly.
At that stage the big question was only how many points the Boks would win by. It was looking like it could become really ugly for the Boks.
But then the Boks became guilty of overplaying and like some New Zealand Super Rugby sides did in the old days before the penny dropped that they need to manage their output better at altitude, the South Africans, who were so intent on running the opposition off their feet, ended up running themselves off their own feet.
MISCONCEPTION ABOUT HIS MISSION
So perhaps the timing of this Thursday Feature is fortuitous for a different reason, for there may be a misconception about former All Black flyhalf Tony Brown’s role as the Bok attack coach and what he is trying to do.
‘Tony-ball’, as some call it, is most emphatically not just about running the ball wide, as the Boks did as if they were pressing a save-get key after the opening quarter at Emirates Airlines Park, and having sat in on this interview in the buildup to that game, it was unsurprising to hear afterwards that Brown was one of the most frustrated people in the Bok coaching box.
“You are overplaying, you are overplaying,” is what head coach Rassie Erasmus told us Brown was shouting even before it all went pear-shaped for the Boks and the shift of momentum in a freaky game had become more obvious.
“It is not about just being expansive. I think a lot of teams get lost by thinking that if they just throw the ball around they are an attacking team,” said Brown in a statement which with a retrospective look after the game stacked up as being quite ominous.
“The best way for you to attack is to make the best of your DNA as a rugby team and get everyone to understand what your DNA is, what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses. And how as a rugby team, when you combine your strengths, you can become a better attacking weapon.
“No matter what team I go into I always coach to the DNA of the rugby team, and just try to improve what that looks like.”
When Brown was helping his countryman Jamie Joseph coach the Japan team that did so well at their own World Cup in 2019, he was noted for his ability to get the team to attack with telling effect with only scraps of possession. Japan moved the ball constantly and were prepared to run from everywhere.
But that was Japan. They didn’t have the forwards to command sufficient possession to sustain a different approach, the team had to make the most of any ball that came their way. So that style of rugby fitted their DNA.
WANTS TO ADD RATHER THAN REINVENT THE WHEEL
In conversations with overseas coaches down the years, what has often been an underlying theme is a perception that the Boks, with their forward power and physicality already so ingrained and regarded as their traditional strength, could become almost unbeatable if they ever evolved to a point where they added an extra dimension to their game.
Brown saw that too, but the important word in that previous sentence is “added”. When Erasmus invited him to join the Bok coaching team, Brown was very clear that what he wanted to do was add to what the Boks already had.
After all, they had just won two Rugby World Cup titles. Erasmus, for his part, wanted his team to evolve, a theme he continued with in the aftermath of the shock 38-22 reverse in Johannesburg, where he felt the Wallabies won playing the old Bok game.
“Australia won that game by playing the type of game we played at the 2019 World Cup,” said Erasmus.
“In other words it was to defend, defend, and defend some more, kick the ball onto us and then ask us to run it back at them so they could feed off our mistakes.
"But we were convinced, and we are still convinced, that we cannot expect to win the World Cup in 2027 playing that kind of rugby, the same kind of rugby that won us the trophy in 2019.”
NO INTENTION TO TURN BOKS INTO ALL BLACKS
There were many watching the Ellis Park game who saw the reversal of roles that Erasmus referred to, and some of us started to foresee what happened later on, when the Boks ran out of puff after their prolonged periods of frenetic ball carrying, even before halftime arrived.
But while that perception drove the notion that the Boks were playing Wallaby or All Black rugby, and that both those teams played to a more traditional test match style template in the first round of the Championship, kicking the ball a lot more than the Boks did, it is most emphatically not Brown’s intention to turn the Boks into the All Blacks.
“I think the kicking game and how you control field position is a massive part of rugby and getting the players to understand when we kick and when we attack is critical to improving our game,” said the former Otago and Highlanders head coach.
“When Rassie asked me to come and help I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I knew how I could help the team improve. I knew they had the talent and the ability to play the way I wanted to play. The most important thing around that though was that I didn’t make it a New Zealand way. It had to be a Springbok way, and a South African way.
“I knew that I could make it work and we are only just getting started in what we are trying to do and the players are getting better and better at understanding how we want to attack. For me it is very exciting what can be achieved by adding to what the Boks already had, and it will be exciting to watch for Springbok fans.
“But my biggest thing was not to take away from the identity of the Springboks. I didn’t want to change what made the Boks successful but just rather to add to it and my most pleasant surprise since taking up the job is how we have improved and how well the players have adapted. And how everyone has embraced what we are doing.”
QUEST FOR SUPREME FITNESS A WORK IN PROGRESS
Of course, as Erasmus intimated at the team announcement press conference ahead of Saturday’s return game against Australia at DHL Stadium, the defensive, forward orientated game that the Boks employed at the 2019 World Cup demands a different type of fitness to what might be required now and for him there was a reason why the Aussies were able to finish strongly against a tired Bok team in Johannesburg.
“The Aussies were fresh because we all know it is a myth, I believe, that defence tires you more than attack,” said the Bok coach.
“On defence you don’t have to worry about the ball and the opposition are the ones who have to worry about the ball. So you can actually rest on defence. If you run yourself off your feet then when you have to defend the turnover you are all flat and then the altitude as an advantage has gone. We were chasing our own tails and that was why we lost the game.”
Brown was speaking before the game in question, but again his comments appear prescient now.
“You definitely cannot attack effectively if you don’t have physical ability to play fast and for long periods of time to be able to get off the ground quickly. You can’t lose ability as a set piece team and as a kicking team, you have to position yourself quickly and see space more than before and that requires supreme fitness.
"So as a coaching team we are definitely pushing the players to be much fitter than they have been before.”
It is no secret that the Boks were put through the wringer in terms of fitness testing and drills in their camps that led into the international season, and there has been a theory peddled, which may not be completely without merit, that the massive second half fades in the two games on the highveld (54-14 down in 80 minutes against Italy and Australia) might have been down to how hard the players have been pushed on the training field.
If so, then what we saw in Johannesburg can be attributed to the inevitable growing pains that sometimes can be experienced in the quest for progress. There was certainly no escaping the hard work the forwards got through when the game was working in the early stages at Ellis Park, and then the amount of running from one end of the field the big men such as Wilco Louw had to do when the Boks inexplicably stopped kicking.
There were only 18 kicks (it was 19 after the game but that was the figure Erasmus gave me) from the Boks in the game and that would have played a big role in tiring out the Bok forwards. They were also though involved more as carriers and popped up more in the wide channels than would have been the case a few years ago.
COACHES THE FORWARDS MORE THAN HE COACHES THE BACKS
“Not many people know this, but for my attack to work I coach the forwards more than I do the backs,” said Brown.
“Because the forwards are the ones that need to set quicker and their skills need to be a lot higher and improved on what they are. They need to have the ability to play into space and to win the carry into the breakdown.
"The backs benefit from it, but I work hard with the forwards and for me a 6/2 or even a 7/1 split works for me as I then have as many forwards as possible who have the ability to get quickly off the ground and that helps sustain our attack across 80 minutes.”
Doing what they did for 20 minutes in Johannesburg across 80 minutes is the goal, and when they get it right, the Boks will be an awesome force for opposing teams to deal with. The Wallabies possibly know that, for while they pulled off a major achievement in breaking a 62 year drought at Ellis Park, their celebrations afterwards were notably muted.
“I feel as though our attack is always improving but can always get better,” says Brown. “The players can always get better at seeing space and attacking space, but we are moving in the right direction. The team is starting to understand how we want to play and how we make the most of all the opportunities we create.”
Again, that was said before last week’s game, but there seems to be a consensus within the Bok team that the loss was a necessary wakeup call that might bring greater clarity over the balance needed to their game. In which case there may be fewer occasions going forward when Brown might be pulling out his hair in frustration because they are overplaying.