New voices and ideas — Boks choose evolution over stagnation

Jerry Flannery during the South Africa men's national rugby team profile shoot at Southern Sun Pretoria on June 12, 2024 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Waldo Swiegers/Gallo Images)

By Craig Ray

7 Jul 2024

The inclusion of Jerry Flannery and Tony Brown in the coaching set-up is a clear sign the world champions are moving forward and not standing still.

Forget what the Springboks produced against Wales a fortnight ago – that was a means to an end. Coach Rassie Erasmus blooded youngsters, gave some rusty players a game and earned a much-needed R10-million-plus for the South African Rugby Union’s coffers.

The Wales match officially started the new cycle between World Cups but the business of real change – of evolution – begins with the Ireland series.

The introduction of Munsterman Jerry Flannery as defence coach will face a supreme early examination from a stacked Ireland attacking playbook.

The Boks’ new attacking advances under former All Black flyhalf Tony Brown will also be on show – although don’t expect miracles so soon into the new regime.

By bringing in former Test referee Jaco Peyper as a full-time laws consultant, the Boks are not leaving anything to chance to gain an edge.

Boks Tony Brown Assistant coach Tony Brown will be refining the Boks' attacking game. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Gallo Images)

Evolution

This is all evidence that the Boks are serious about evolving their game to ensure that they are as feared with the ball as they are without it.

Brown’s mandate is probably harder to achieve because he will be asking South African players to view the game through a New Zealand lens.

It’s no bad thing but will require digging deep into the players’ mentality, not to unlearn what they know, but to be open to freeing their minds more willingly.

Flannery’s job is, in some ways, harder. There is very little wrong with the Bok defence that former head coach Jacques Nienaber built. Over the past four years it was the most watertight in the sport.

Flannery must stamp his own identity on defence while not undoing the good work that has been done. It’s a delicate balancing act. When you’re starting from such a high baseline, it’s harder to make improvements and easier to take a step backwards – initially at least.

Although South Africa’s attack has grown over the past four years – and for that Mzwandile Stick and Felix Jones deserve praise – it’s still the lesser of the two central traits.

That’s not because of Stick, or the now departed Jones’s lack of coaching skills, but because the Boks have always prioritised defence over attack. South African players, from any schoolboy team right through to the Boks, are naturally inclined to want to tackle. Physicality is something in the South African DNA and the best way to express it is through defence.

So, naturally, the tendency has been to make defence airtight and then play from that foundation, which means attack has been treated as a secondary subject.

Brown’s appointment is a signal that the Boks are comfortable with the main pillars of their game – set piece, defence and kicking – and now want to focus more on what they do with the ball.

Boks Jerry Flannery Defence coach Jerry Flannery. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Gallo Images)

Unlocking flair

It was instructive that flyhalf Handrè Pollard, not renowned as being a ball-player in the same mould as Manie Libbok, or even the emerging Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, appears excited about Brown’s input after only a few weeks.

At times in the past few seasons the Boks have torn teams apart with their new breed of attack-minded players such as Libbok, centre Lukhanyo Am, wings Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie, and fullback Damian Willemse.

The skills and the talent are there, and it’s now about unlocking that flair more regularly. Brown singled out Pollard as a man he would like to see take his game up a level. Pollard probably has very little left to prove with two outstanding World Cup campaigns on his CV. His goal-kicking under pressure is unmatched in the Bok set-up, while his calm demeanour is essential in those tight matches.

But like all players, however decorated they are, the goal is to become better by improving areas of their game that could do with it.

Brown’s public musing about Pollard’s attacking prowess was therefore interesting.

It’s almost surely a way of challenging a player who has achieved so much – about giving him a new goal that supersedes just winning and losing.

“I’m hoping that with a bit more time we can build a good partnership and get him [Pollard] playing some really exciting rugby,” Brown said.

“When I watched him play under-20 rugby, he was the most dominant flyhalf at the gain line in the world as a 20-year-old.

“If we can get him back to playing that sort of footy, that would be amazing.

“Guys like Manie, Sacha and Jordan [Hendrikse], they play the game a little bit differently. Understanding them as players and them understanding me as a coach will develop over time.

“The best thing from my view is they’ve all got amazing skill sets. They can all push themselves and challenge themselves to be better players. It’s exciting for me. Hopefully it’s exciting for them to get coached in a different way.”

Pollard, ever the professional, didn’t take the challenge from Brown as an insult, or as a slight on his past achievements, but saw it as a new challenge. It’s exactly that mindset that the Boks need to adopt as they try to stay on top of the world.

“I really enjoy Tony. He is a breath of fresh air,” Pollard said. “He thinks about the game a bit differently and if that means playing more on the gain line, that’s great. But we have our plans for this weekend,” he said ahead of the Ireland clash.

“I’m not going to get into the details, but the background Tony has and the teams he has worked for probably means he has had to look for space in a different way than we are used to.

“We [the Boks] have always used our strength and physicality to get us gain-line [dominance]. He sees it differently. We are at a point now where we can use different skill sets and not just be a one-dimensional, direct team to achieve that.

“Of course, we are never going away from our strengths, but the way he sees space and the way he sees our guys using our strengths in a way to create space for our outside backs is exciting.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Next mission for the Boks — dominate between World Cups

“Against good defences like Ireland’s, it’s not always going to be the case, but if we can create more opportunities, it will be good for us,” Pollard said.

For the Boks, standing still is going backwards and Erasmus, as he always does, has brought in new voices to challenge the status quo.

Many of the players in the squad have heard Erasmus, Stick and, until recently, Nienaber and Jones’s voices for a long time.

Hearing ideas from two non-South Africans, seeing how these men from Ireland and New Zealand view the game and then translating that into a workable plan for the Springboks, is exciting, challenging and ultimately invigorating.

That is the difference between evolution and stagnation. And between winning and losing. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Evolution

Unlocking flair