Steve Hansen: The Boks are 'rolling the dice and so far they’ve got away with it'

Sir Steve Hansen has weighed in on the All Blacks‘ prospects in the upcoming Rugby Championship – particularly the highly anticipated two-Test series against the Springboks on home soil.

Adding to the anticipation is the fact that New Zealand will host the reigning world champions at Eden Park – their traditional stronghold, where they haven’t lost in over 30 years.

It’s an iconic rivalry set to unfold at an iconic venue, and while from an All Blacks perspective, toppling the Boks has proven difficult in their last four matchups, Hansen says the recipe for success doesn’t change.

“We’ve got to play to our strengths. South Africa have always played to their strengths, which are their big physicality and their big men,” the 2015 world champion coach told Martin Devlin on DSPN.

“We’ve got to play to the strengths that we believe we have, and the team they’ve (the All Blacks selectors) selected allows them to play our fast game because they’re all good athletes. However, there’s no right or wrong way to play. It comes down to who’s allowed to play the way they want to play on the day, and the opposition have a big say in that.”

Both international heavyweights have enjoyed winning starts to 2025, sweeping their respective July series, albeit against understrength opposition. In 2024, South Africa lost just two of their 13 Test matches, while New Zealand fell short four times in 14 contests – two of those losses coming at the hands of the Springboks.

The men in black’s back-to-back 2024 defeats in Johannesburg and Cape Town extended their losing streak against South Africa to four, but Hansen kept everything in perspective when asked whether Rassie Erasmus’ side could be felled.

“Well, they’ve been beaten, so that tells you they are beatable,” Hansen replied in his familiar, blunt, matter-of-fact tone.

“They roll the dice every time they go to their 6-2 split bench, and they’ve got people that can cover in the back if they get multiple injuries, but they are rolling the dice and so far they’ve got away with it.

“And it makes it hard because in the past, they’ve probably run out of petrol a little bit.

“But what they’re doing now is making sure players are being replaced by like players, and they’ve got a genuine, real physicality. They’ve had some success with it, they believe in it, and they trust it.

“But to beat them, you have to shake that trust a bit and challenge their thinking and challenge that space where they think they can dominate you physically.

“You’ve got to front up. It doesn’t matter who you play anyway in a Test match; you’ve got to front up with numbers one to eight and be prepared to be physical, and your backs have to be against South Africa as well.

“The All Blacks are more than capable of doing that, as are many other teams.”