Rugby is a game of grey areas. From foul play to scrum-time skirmish, one’s opinion on a particular incident can vary greatly depending on the lens through which it is viewed. Even top officials disagree with regularity on moments of contention, while plenty a perplexed look from a player has betrayed an alternate view at a coaching or refereeing call.
It is partly through their ability to thrive within these indeterminate spaces that has helped the Springboks become double World Cup winners. While their unique approach to the sport has so often driven debate, South Africa have generally managed to innovate or dominate in ways that no other side seems capable. From loading up with seven forwards on the bench to maximise their second-half scrum impact, to employing traffic lights in the coaches’ box to improve on-field decision-making, it is a side that searches for every possible edge.
But now even the Springboks are stepping out of the grey. “It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” director of rugby Rassie Erasmus explains, having instigated a significant evolution of his team this year from a side that wins with brilliant basics to one capable of winning in all ways.
“When we started in 2018/2019, the skill set of our players, certain players who came through the elite player development system, was magnificent, but some guys were really still in the old mould and we had a year and a half till the World Cup. So we thought: ‘Let’s grind it out of the basics. Kick and charge and defence and pressure at the breakdown and pressure at the scrum’.
“But sometimes we are not sure why the scrum has fallen down. And we relied so much on scrums and mauls, which are a grey area for the referee where it’s almost impossible sometimes to get it right.”
As part of this evolution, Erasmus has added former Test referee Jaco Peyper to his team, hoping to gain greater clarity on certain decisions and build bridges with an officiating community he hurt significantly during the 2021 British & Irish Lions series. Another key appointment has been that of attack coach Tony Brown – the Kiwi is a visionary thinker whose more unorthodox ideas are at home in the South African coaching room.
“For me it has been a great six months from an attack point of view, with the players buying into what I am selling them and what I am trying to drive,” said Brown. “I must emphasise that the team still has to attack the way the Boks play the game. The strengths are strong physicality and being on top of the gainline.
“I am not going to teach the Boks to attack like the All Blacks. That is not my brief. I am here to develop an attacking game that suits the Boks and their strengths.”
Still, the experimentation has continued this year, with Cheslin Kolbe throwing in lineouts and a doubling down on the seven forwards bench strategy utilised in the World Cup final. “We always had a back left on the bench in case there was an injury,” Erasmus outlined. “The last guy was getting on for three minutes.
“We’ve been together a long time, since 2018. Our creativity was in set phases and how we did things in lineouts and mauls. The moment we got some younger blood in, the team started evolving and would say some stuff bores us in training sessions, it’s always a clean-out drill’. Although it was new stuff and new techniques, we could make it [more exciting].
“Some of it is [about] taking the nervousness away, and looking forward to that specific thing you are going to do in the game. After the anthem, that jitteriness is almost away because you are looking forward to that first lineout five metres out. Sometimes it doesn’t work. But we always look for something that’s exciting.”
The attacking expansion has brought joy. A first Rugby Championship since 2019 was secured in style with a vibrant win over Argentina; the performance against Scotland on Sunday was imperfect in many ways, but the invention showed by Willie le Roux and Handre Pollard in the hosts’ 22 created two tries for Makazole Mapimpi.
“The game evolves the whole time,” captain Siya Kolisi says. “There are always new rules coming in. People want to make it faster and see amazing opportunities, so we want to evolve as the game evolves. What helped us win the World Cup in 2019 didn’t help in 2023 – that’s why he changed the style that we played.
“I think I’ve been involved for 12 years and every time we come in, he’s always got something new. That keeps you going. It keeps guys who have been involved a long time excited to learn and wanting to get better, each and every single time. That’s where we are good as a group; we are always willing to take on things.”
The approach to developing plans is more collaborative than is sometimes suggested, Kolisi adds: “Rassie puts them on the table as ideas. he doesn’t say, ‘This is the plan, do it.’ We will all talk then someone like Eben [Etzebeth] or Duane [Vermeulen] will say, ‘This might work’ Then he (Rassie) makes the call and everyone buys into it and works on it.”
