'Tonyball' has taken Rassie's Boks to new heights

OPINION: The Rugby Championship results as well as a series of unprecedented stats highlight the Springbok evolution under attack coach Tony Brown.

There was a fair amount of pushback after Rassie Erasmus appointed Tony Brown as the Boks’ new attack coach in the lead-up to the 2024 season.

Some fans – and even a few members of the media – expressed their concern over the recruitment, and what it meant for the future of the back-to-back World Cup champions.

Brown’s appointment, they said, would undermine the traditional strengths of the Boks.

The Springbok identity, they said, was about set-piece dominance and uncompromising physicality, and little else.

Fast forward to the present, where the Boks have racked up eight wins in 10 Tests, and claimed the Mandela Plate, Freedom Cup and Rugby Championship title.

Erasmus has continued to manage the team as he sees fit.

The decision to use 49 players throughout the season – and 35 in the six-game Rugby Championship – has boosted rather than compromised the quest for results.

What’s more, the call to recruit and empower Brown has taken the team’s attack to unprecedented levels.

Erasmus has spoken at length about the team’s evolution, while Brown himself has talked about challenging the players to identify space.

Players young and old have praised Brown for his input, and have warmed to the task of lifting the tempo while striving for the spectacular.

Few fans and critics will look past the results, but it’s the stats that show how much this team has progressed in recent months.

The Boks finished the game against Argentina at the Mbombela Stadium with 765 running metres, 48 points, and seven tries.

These are new Rugby Championship records for a team coached by Erasmus – and serve to confirm that the Boks have the tools to play an ambitious game.

The overall stats for the 2024 tournament make a similarly powerful statement.

Erasmus’ charges topped the table for points scored (188), tries scored (24), metres made (3053) and linebreaks (50).

Over the past seven years, no other Bok side has racked up more points, tries, metres, carries or passes (889).

The class of 2022 ranks second in most departments, although there is a lot of daylight between the two teams.

Two years ago, the Boks made 700 fewer metres, 200 fewer carries, and 300 fewer passes throughout that six-game tournament. They also averaged 10 to 20 fewer rucks per match and certainly didn’t play with the same tempo.

While Erasmus and Brown have taken this Bok side to new heights, they have continued to invest in the team’s traditional strengths.

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The new laws have done nothing to dilute the Boks’ potency at the scrum.

Throughout the Rugby Championship, South Africa won 33 scrums and forced 15 penalties at this set-piece.

The Boks won 86 line-outs – including a whopping 24 against the All Blacks in Johannesburg. It’s a remarkable stat, given the injury-enforced absence of frontline locks such as Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert, RG Snyman and Jean Kleyn.

While the maul remains potent, the Boks don’t set that imposing formation nearly as much as they used to.

South Africa used the maul 31 times in the recent Rugby Championship. Back in 2021, they used the maul twice as much (62) while employing a very different game plan.

Perhaps this highlights the team’s progress. These days, they have more weapons at their disposal.

The Boks used several line-out and maul variations during the recent Rugby Championship, while also looking to attack other areas of the field.

Believe it or not, the move towards a more attacking approach is aligned with an excellent kicking strategy.

No team kicked more than the Boks (168 kicks from hand) in the 2024 Rugby Championship.

Only the class of 2021 (177) has kicked more in a full edition of the tournament over the past seven years.

What sets this current team apart, however, is their variation as well as their execution.

The contestable kicking game that won the Boks two World Cups and a Lions series is still prominent. South Africa managed to regather possession from several of these plays in the recent games against Argentina.

The kick-pass and grubber options deep in opposition territory have also paid dividends.

Flyhalf Manie Libbok put on an attacking kicking masterclass in Mbombela, while replacement Handré Pollard made a telling contribution with a grubber that created a try for Jesse Kriel.

The conversion rate in the opposition 22 has been a problem for past Bok teams.

The class of 2024 is creating more scoring chances deep in enemy territory and – goal-kicking aside – translating more of those opportunities into points.

There is a fear that an emphasis on attack might compromise the mighty Bok defence.

While it’s true that the South Africans are using a slightly different system under defence coach Jerry Flannery, and that some players are still coming to grips with the changes, the stats certainly make for encouraging reading.

Another Erasmus-era record tumbled this past Saturday, as the Boks conceded just seven points in the Rugby Championship for the first time.

Throughout the tournament, they conceded 94 points and 10 tries.

Even at their defensive peak in 2021, the Boks weren’t that miserly during a six-game campaign.

The team certainly has room for improvement, when one considers the number of tackles that were missed over the six matches (127), the high error rate on attack (88 turnovers conceded), and the missed kicks on goal (12).

But by and large, the stats show why there is cause for celebration beyond the results, and how the Boks have evolved into a side that poses serious threats across the field.

@rugby365com

* Picture credit: Anton Geyser media