FILE - Springboks assistant coach Tony Brown pictured during one of the team’s warm-up sessions in the Rugby Championship. Former All Blacks flyhalf Tony Brown has helped the Boks evolve their game. FILE. Former All Blacks flyhalf Tony Brown has helped the Boks evolve their game. Picture: Phill Magakoe/AFP
Phase one of the Springboks new attack plan went swimmingly during the Rugby Championship as the Boks added new a new string to their bow while dominating the tournament.
After winning the previous two Rugby World Cup titles with a “skop, skiet and donner” approach, relying heavily on their physicality, defence and set-piece prowess, the Springboks have added New Zealander Tony Brown as the new attack coach to try and broaden their horizons.
It was clear from the very first Test of the year against Wales at Twickenham in London, that the team was going to give the ball a bit more air to utilise their dangerous outside backs. They started to attack with a lot more variation, with forwards and backs passing the ball out of the back instead of just putting their heads down and barging into defenders.
While it’s still early days in the process, the signs are already there for all to see, while the Rugby Championship statistics also back up these claims.
For this exercise, we are comparing the Springboks’ numbers in the recently completed Rugby Championship with the 2022 edition because last year’s tournament was truncated because of the Rugby World Cup in France.
In 2024, The Springboks made the most clean breaks in the tournament with 50, five more than the All Blacks who came in in 45.
The South Africans made only 32 clean breaks carries in 2022. But the difference is in 2024 they actually carried the ball 730 times in this year’s competition compared 485 carries two years ago.
This year the Springboks (135) were second in the defenders beaten stats behind the All Blacks (165). However, this stat is much better than in 2022 when beat 107 defenders with ball in hand.
So, the Boks carried a lot more this year, but those carries were also with bit more purpose and thinking behind it, as they got the ball into the hands of the players who could do the most damage with it.
Wing Cheslin Kolbe beat an unbelievable 21 defenders during the Rugby Championship, four more than the next best player. He also had six clean breaks and made 239 metres with ball in hand. And, to illustrate the point even more, he didn’t even feature in all of the Boks’ matches.
However, while the Springboks played with a lot more width on attack, they never sacrificed their traditional strengths to do it.
The Springboks won more scrum penalties than any other team in the competition, which allowed them to take the points or kick for field position to launch their attacks.
The Springboks’ lineout didn’t really live up to its full potential - largely due to the lock injury crisis - but the Springboks probably had one of their best mauling tournaments. They came up with some nifty moves throughout the tournament, but used their power as the go-to option when needed.
The Springboks scored a big a chunk of their tournament high 24 tries off this set-piece, with hooker Malcolm Marx ending the campaign with four tries - two behind the top-scorer All Blacks wing Caleb Clarke.
But the Boks also used both their scrum and lineout to execute lovely strike moves that led to tries. Those were highlighted by quick handling, flat passing and players running great lines.
The scary thing is that is only the start of the Springboks’ evolution, as the merger of the power game and the flair will take some time. The best is certainly yet to come for these Boks.
@JohnGoliath82