Brown could turn the Boks red hot

It probably wasn’t by design but no sooner had Ireland made their big statement in the Six Nations last week than the team they will be hoping to knock off their champions perch in this World Cup cycle made a statement of its own.

The announcement of the Springbok management team, because of what it potentially signifies, might have been an even bigger statement than the one made by Ireland against a French team that on the evidence of the most recent game in Edinburgh might not be all its cracked up to be.

We already knew about the probable appointment of the two overseas coaches, Ireland’s Jerry Flannery and New Zealander Tony Brown.

But what wasn’t clear was that Rassie Erasmus was going to commit until 2027. It was generally accepted his commitment would be to 2025.

There was sufficient uncertainty over Erasmus’ commitment for the length of the four-year cycle to hedge any bets about the Boks completing a hat-trick of World Cup trophies in Australia. Now the whole landscape has changed.

Erasmus can’t go on forever, and by the end of the next World Cup he’d have been in charge of the Bok fortunes for 10 seasons. That ’ s a long time.

But while there’s an argument for renewal that applies to the coaching of most team sports, it doesn’t relate to Erasmus at this point. Having him oversee the necessary process of transition and renewal in the group he first selected in 2018 will make a quantum difference to the Bok chances of retaining their champion status.

The appointment of retired top referee Jaco Peyper to a newly created position overseeing the laws is indicative of Erasmus’ continued determination to leave no stone unturned in his quest to strengthen the culture of excellence he has created.

But the Brown appointment is the most seismic as it is a harbinger for the sort of change to the Bok approach that might lift them clear of the other challenging nations.

Foreign coaches often talk about the fear in the global coaching community that one day the penny may drop for SA rugby that there is a lot more that can be added to the Bok game.

To be fair, the switch away from the traditional forward grinding, physical defence approach that has been the bedrock of Bok success in the post-isolation era has already happened.

When the Boks began running back kick receipt against France in Marseille in November 2022 it brought in a change that was perhaps forgotten in the flush of their World Cup triumph in 2023 because of the weather-dictated approach in the final. Until the bad weather that nearly tripped Siya Kolisi’s men up in the semifinal arrived, the Boks were being praised for how they had broadened their avenues of attack and how they had added to their attacking arsenal.

The appointment of Brown though should grow the Boks away from being a team that relies on the opposition defensive disorder encountered in counterattack and striking from transition situations to being one that can also strike off organised attack. Felix Jones did a good job of looking after the Bok attack in tandem with Mzwandile Stick at the most recent World Cup, but it was not because he was an attack specialist that the Irishman was recruited. Brown is the first coach to have been appointed because of his credentials as a mentor of attack since Swys de Bruin, who had a short-lived stay at the Boks in 2018.

When he was playing for the Sharks under Dick Muir in 2006, one of his most memorable quotes was about how pleasurable it was to have

“eight angry Dutchmen” playing in front of him providing him with possession to play with rather than playing against him.

He is going to enjoy the same effect now that he has switched from Japan, where he impressed as an innovator with a team that had little possession to play with, to the nation that boasts arguably the best pack in world rugby. Not that Brown will bring a Japan angle, it is the Kiwi angle that will be most valued.

Brown would not have linked up with Erasmus had they not had a good conversation about alignment of philosophy and where Erasmus wants to take the Boks.

So we could be set in this four-year cycle to see the Boks finally do what opposition coaches have always feared by moving towards a more complete, total attacking game.

There is no denying they have the strike power at the back too, and Brown must be looking forward to working with the X-factor players such as Cheslin Kolbe, Lukhanyo Am, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie, Damian Willemse and Manie Libbok.

The Boks have been good at tournament rugby since returning from isolation in 1992, but not so much at dominating the sport between World Cups. Brown might just be the catalyst to changing that, and ensuring the Boks go into 2027 as redhot favourites.