Former All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen has given his views on the Springboks’ approach to the game and whether they will be beatable in the upcoming Rugby Championship.
Former All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen has given his views on the Springboks’ approach to the game and whether they will be beatable in the upcoming Rugby Championship.
South Africa will kick off their Rugby Championship title defence next month with back-to-back encounters against Australia in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively, while New Zealand’s campaign in the prestigious Southern Hemisphere tournament begins with successive matches against Argentina in Cordoba and Buenos Aires.
The Springboks were in action recently in an exhibition game against the Barbarians, a two-Test series with Italy and another international against Georgia and the world champions were victorious in all of those fixtures.
Meanwhile, the All Blacks sealed a 3-0 series triumph over France after notching victories in Dunedin, Wellington and Hamilton.
After their respective Tests against the Wallabies and Los Pumas, the Boks and All Blacks will resume their highly respected rivalry in New Zealand in September with matches scheduled for Auckland and Wellington on successive weekends.
The first clash between the arch rivals will be at Eden Park where the world champions will be determined to do what no side has done since 1994 and that is to beat the All Blacks at their spiritual home.
Springboks in fine form against the All Blacks
That will be some achievement but the Boks head into the match in fine form against the All Blacks as they have won the last four Tests between the nations.
Under the guidance of their head coach Rassie Erasmus, the world champions have proved to be a tough nut to crack and they should be in a confident mood ahead of that clash at Eden Park.
Hansen appeared on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin and was questioned by the show’s host on what would be the best approach for the All Blacks when they take on the Springboks.
He was asked and whether they should try and match the world champions at their own game or if it would be better for the All Blacks to use their attacking style of play to get the better of their opponents.
“I think the last thing you just said is probably the key, isn’t it?” replied Hansen. “We’ve got to play to our strengths. South Africa have always played to their strengths, which is their big physicality and their big men.
“We’ve got to play to the strengths that we believe we have and the team they’ve 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.”
‘They are beatable’
Devlin then mentioned how the Boks have fared in recent years and whether they All Blacks will be able to get the better of their arch rivals in 2025 and Hansen said: “Well, they’ve been beaten, so that tells you they are beatable.
They roll the dice every time they go to their split bench (Bomb Squad) and they’ve got people that can cover in the back so 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.”
