As the euphoria of the Rugby World Cup Rugby triumph subsides the prospect of where to from here looms large for the brains trust at SA Rugby. Going back to back in World Cup\u2019s in the modern era is an absolutely monumental achievement with the thought of doing the triple sounding more like a fairy tale, but is it? The news out of the SA camp is not of cleaning out the closet allowing a new set of coaches and ideas to replace the old but rather continuing with the same winning formula. This has both pros and cons which I will delve into later but I feel that this is the highest chance of doing the unthinkable by repeating World Cup glory down under in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previous World Cup regime changes have shown the Springboks that starting from scratch is not a winning formula as the new coach has so much pressure to win immediately that he hardly plans for the future but rather a winning season to give himself some more runway to work with. The worst example of this was after Heynecke Meyer took over the Springbok role from Pieter De Villiers with such contrasting ideas and management style that it took years for the Springbok setup to recover. Pieter De Villiers had the benefit of taking over a Jake White team and blueprint that was running like a well oiled machine he did nothing more than manage people which in fairness was his strength. This period of change gave Alastair Coetzee a poisoned chalice where he had to try to build the team and style he wanted from the ground up which we all know was a disaster. This period post 2007 until the messiah Rassie arrived is exactly why coaches need to be able to plan succession with the long term in mind for the benefit of players and coaches. Can you imagine that a new coach started today and came in saying we need to change our structures, defensive patterns and bleed in new players at the same time? It would take years to recover from such changes. New Zealand had a long period of succession stability from the Graham Henry coaching tree which is why all of the players always looked on the same path between World Cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The downside of keeping this team together is that it gets stale with the same players\/ideas slapped together hoping to continue the wave of success. Players like anybody need new challenges and the balance needs to be struck to get the most out of players by challenging them and being too extreme. Coaches need to grow just like players so this management squad will need to keep learning rather than sitting on their laurels with the rest of the world champing at the bit to cut us down to size. Defensively the Boks are the best in the world and Jaqcues Nienaber is a large reason they are able to hold that title. The key is not to try to replace him with a like for like but someone who has his own take on how to run the defence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa has learnt from their mistakes and kept the core of the coaching staff intact which allows them to build on what they have achieved rather than start over. They will also have massive amounts of capital having won the World Cup back to back that they can take some risks which could result in losses early whereas a new coach wouldn’t have that luxury. Experience wins World Cups so when that 23 plays in a knock out match they have to have been in similar situations beforehand which is why now is the time to get the next generation into the saddle as soon as possible. Experience and age don’t necessarily have to align with someone like Francois Steyn as an example of a young player with oodles of experience in his prime. Damian Willemse will be in the same boat in this new cycle of a young \u2018old\u2019 player which is the gold standard for managing a squad as old legs get tired in a long campaign with short turn around times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why this plan to keep the coaching team together is another master stroke because rugby is in flux with fans and commentators railing against the defensive\/TMO heavy matches with an overcorrection on its way. I predict the game will move to a more attacking style with law changes and coaches favouring a new brand of rugby to not just hold onto existing fans but entice new ones. Being able to plan the 4 year cycle with that in mind will allow the coaches to pick the right young players and upskill them where needed whilst still keeping the experienced guys who have been there and done that. One thing that the management team excel at is playing to the law and how it is reffed. New Zealanders have been bleeting for what feels like months about the boring Bok style but it is geared to how the game is adjudicated. Once the inevitable law changes come into place they will adapt and play a more expansive game to win. That is the genius of Rassie, he takes what we have in abundance (strength, speed and determination) and concots the perfect mix to win and he will do the same in the future with varying doses of what is required. One thing’s for sure the Rassie 3.0 era will be nothing but exciting and ground breaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the euphoria of the Rugby World Cup Rugby triumph subsides the prospect of where to from here looms large for the brains trust at SA Rugby. Going back to back in World Cup\u2019s in the modern era is an absolutely monumental achievement with the thought of doing the triple sounding more like a fairy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-african-rugby","category-springboks"],"yoast_head":"\n