Former All Blacks boss Steve Hansen applauds the demonstration of depth from Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks in the Nations Championship.
South Africa beat Scotland 42-28 at Loftus last week, but the story again was the blooding of newcomers like Paul de Villiers, Ben-Jason Dixon and Cobus Wiese by the world champions.
Erasmus deployed 36 out of his initial 46-man squad over the first two Tests of the new competition, and named four uncapped players in a strong 23 to face Wales in Durban on Saturday.
Speaking on the Rugby Unity podcast with former Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie, Hansen analysed the Boks’ victory over the Scots.
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“The first thing you have to take away is they’re building some wonderful depth,” the World Cup-winning tactician said. “Yeah, they’re doing that deliberately.
“You look at the French team and you go, ‘Well, they’re doing the same thing.’ I think back to when we tried to say we wanted a squad of, you know, two teams. Thirty players that you could pick and wouldn’t make any difference … that’s what’s happening with South Africa.
“Their mindset is ‘we don’t care who we pick, we’re good enough, we’ve got enough players’ to challenge Link’s [McKenzie’s] idea of having four or five world-class players in the discussion all the time.
“You can’t develop people if they don’t play, so they’re using the tournament to do that. And they’re getting success with it.”
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McKenzie, though, noted the importance for Erasmus of having seasoned campaigners like Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jesse Kriel on the park, with both men set to tackle the Welsh this week.
He also highlighted the value of veteran playmaker Handré Pollard to the Boks’ attritional game model.
“South Africa picked a different team, and I thought Scotland had the right type of game to trouble them and they did,” McKenzie said.
“When you look through the stats it was all Scotland – they had 60% possession, 60% territory, they beat 47 tackles … you’d think they’d win the game easily.
“But Rassie picks his teams and there’s always a core of players who are his go-tos. He plays Du Toit because he’s a magical player. He plays Kriel at 13, who’s probably like a Conrad Smith in terms of how he organises the defence.
“[The Boks] rely on their power game and that rewards them. They didn’t have much territory [against Scotland] but when they got up there they converted.
“The other thing is Pollard. If he missed a few conversions then you’ve got a much closer game but he was kicking everything.
“From lineout drives, Scotland were moving the ball as much as they could but, in the end, South Africa were very direct and that was the difference.”
Photo: @Springboks/X
The post Hansen: Boks don’t care who they pick appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Former All Blacks boss Steve Hansen applauds the demonstration of depth from Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks in the Nations Championship.
The post Hansen: Boks don’t care who they pick appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
