Steve Hansen says the All Blacks must not give the Springboks what they want during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
The No 1-ranked back-to-back world champions will start as favourites on home soil when they take on the second-ranked All Blacks in a four-Test showdown across August and September, with New Zealand rebuilding under new coach Dave Rennie.
Speaking on The Rugby Unity podcast, Hansen said the Boks’ physical game can be disrupted – but only if opponents are prepared to think differently.
“I like doing the unexpected against them because that’s what they don’t want,” said the 2015 World Cup-winning former All Blacks coach. “They just want to be able to go chug, chug, chug, chug, chug.
“Yes, they’ll tell you they play at pace. But that’s after they’ve physically bashed you. Then they’ll speed it up because you’ve got nothing left.
“It looks like they’re going faster, but they’re really not. They’ve just got more energy because you’re knackered trying to deal with their physicality.
“So think outside the square. Do things in a way that means they can’t have what they want, because then they’ll get frustrated.
“They’ll start thinking, ‘This isn’t right. I’m the top dog here and I’m not getting what I want.’ And then they start to question themselves.”
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Hansen believes the key is to deny the Boks dominance in the collisions and take away one of their biggest weapons in the aerial contest.
“Any good team, if you take away what they want, automatically they’ve got to start thinking because they don’t expect that,” he said. “They expect to go out and get exactly what they want.
“South Africa want physicality. So, as the ball-carrier, you can’t allow them to physically dominate you.
“You’ve got to use your footwork into contact. You’ve got to make sure your breakdown work is good because of that footwork.
“Just deny them the opportunity to impose themselves on you.
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Hansen believes the All Blacks also need to rethink the way they approach the aerial battle.
“They want a high-ball contest, so you’ve got to find a way to take that away as well.
“South Africa are really good in the air. They don’t actually catch that many contestable kicks, but they force you to drop most of them because they jump and create havoc while legitimately contesting. So let’s reshape the way we think about it.
“If both players are running back for the kick, why can’t your player compete to catch it as well? If he catches it, great. If he doesn’t, at least he’s taken away South Africa’s opportunity to interfere with your catcher.
“I’d definitely rethink how I’d deal with those balls because you know they’re coming.”
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Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images
The post Hansen: How All Blacks can beat Boks appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Steve Hansen says the All Blacks must not give the Springboks what they want during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
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