World Cup-winning All Blacks boss runs through blueprint to beat Boks

Former All Blacks boss Steve Hansen has revealed his blueprint for beating South Africa, insisting opponents need to take away the Springboks’ physical edge and aerial supremacy to have any success.

The 2015 World Cup-winning coach believes the key to overcoming the reigning world champions is not trying to match their strengths, but instead forcing them away from the areas where they are most dangerous.

While that may seem obvious, that has been the conundrum consistently flummoxing Test coaches over the past eight years.

Hansen, who joined the Rugby Unity podcast recently, pointed to South Africa’s kicking, aerial dominance and confrontational style as the areas opponents must find solutions to if they are to challenge the Springboks. However, rather than reeling off things teams should do, he posited some tactical changes that would help teams achieve that and would frustrate the world number ones.

The current Toyota Verblitz boss also used England’s recent defeat by South Africa as an example of what happens when teams allow Rassie Erasmus’ side to play the game they want to play.

Fixture

Nations Championship

South Africa

08:40

11 Jul 26

Scotland

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“You know that they’re going to kick the ball, so your aerial game has to be good and you have to put pressure on the source, which is to put pressure on the kicker at the start,” he said.

“The other side is they do what they do really, really well, and it’s not flashy but it’s done with intent and it’s done with purpose and it’s done with high amount of skill for whatever they’re doing well. The one thing about the South Africans is they love physicality, so how do you take that physicality away from them when you’ve got the ball? That’s the challenge for teams.

“England came out and started poorly and they fed South Africa what they wanted. To beat South Africa, you have to take away what they want. Take away the ability to be physical. So when you ball carry, using your footwork into contact and don’t just try and T-bone them because they just love it. I always found if we could use great footwork and have them feeling like they can’t get a decent tackle, they start to get frustrated.

“You’re going to need to play at pace against them, because they’ve got depth, their bench is strong, but challenge them to have to play fast. They talk about wanting to play fast, but they don’t really want to play fast, I don’t think.

“It doesn’t matter who you are. If you get frustrated, your discipline goes out the door. It doesn’t matter what team you are, and different things frustrate different teams.

“But when you’re a team that’s used to winning and used to getting what you want all the time, which South Africa are, then you’ve got to take what they want away from them. You can’t allow them to have it all the time.

“Their kick-chase game, they don’t always look to catch the ball. You’ve got to change your mindset about how you’re going to catch them. Rather than having your back guy catch it, get the player running back with their chaser, get him to go up and catch it. Then they can’t jump through that airspace and take away the eyesight of your normal catcher, your last man.

“Little things like that. You’re just going to have to play around with your catching game, who’s catching it, and have a backstop.”