VIDEO: Why All Black will create 'magic' with the Boks
If your mantra is AAA (attack, attack and attack), there is a new book on the shelf.
And one of the authors, celebrated coach Alan Zondagh, who wrote the guidebook in collaboration with his son AB Zondagh, is adamant that South Africa has the talent to live out his belief in how the game should be played.
Speaking to @king365ed at the launch of his book, Attack Attack Attack, Zondagh said he poured his ‘experience’ of 40-odd years into print to assist coaches in developing an expansive game.
With French legend Pierre Villepreux as his ‘mentor’, he based his philosophy on the mantra of “flexibility and adaptability, not organisation”.
“It should be fast, exciting and an attacking game,” Zondagh said about his belief in ‘causing chaos’.
His ‘love affair’ with the French game started when he was Director of Coaching at Western Province in 1983.
“They were doing something different,” he said, adding: “I’ve been there just about every second year for the last 40 years.”
His advice to all young players is to “develop their skills and decision-making”.
“It takes time for a player to have rugby intelligence.”
(WATCH as celebrated coach Alan Zondagh speaks to @king365ed about the direction the game is going in…..)
The enlistment of respected New Zealand coach Tony Brown is a ‘fantastic’ move that will benefit the evolution of the Springbok game.
“He is one of the best,” Zondagh said of the 50-year-old retired All Black, who joined the Bok coaching ticket in January 2024.
“It will take time for him,” Zondagh said, adding: “He has a very good foundation to play from.
“You first have to get the ball before you can use the ball.
“You need good, clean, fast possession, and from that he will create magic.”
He used star Springbok Cheslin Kolbe as an example of a player who benefited and came into his own by moving to an attack-minded French team like Toulouse.
“That team [Stade Toulousain] gave him the opportunity to showcase his skills.
“Now he is one of the best players in the world.
“We have the players to close a game down and smash it up, or we can open it up if we want to.
“Tony Brown would be able to develop that part of the [Bok] game.”
The Zondaghs’ Attack Attack Attack is a comprehensive guide to coaching and playing an attacking game, based senior’s four decades of coaching experience, at both first-class and grassroots level.
In recent years, defence has overridden this key component.
According to Zondagh senior, the aim of this book is to reverse that trend and impart ways to beat defensive mindsets – in other words, to attack and cause chaos in the systems of teams set on preventing tries rather than scoring them.
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