Rassie and Boks chase evolution in order to stay ahead

The Springboks have gone where only one team has gone before by defending the Rugby World Cup trophy they won in 2019 in France four years later, but coach Rassie Erasmus knows that continued evolution of their game is necessary in order to remain top.

Erasmus introduced his new coaching team to the media in Cape Town on Tuesday, and it wasn’t surprising that he explained the appointment of Tony Brown as his backline coach and new defence coach Jerry Flannery around the need to have fresh voices and new ideas introduced. Former All Black Brown has coached the Highlanders in New Zealand and Japan, while Flannery is a former Ireland international who worked with Erasmus at Munster.

“Tony and Jerry bring a fresh perspective from different rugby environments and it’s lekker to hear new voices on how we’ve been doing things and how we might do them in the future,” said Erasmus.

“As we said before last year’s World Cup in France, there was no way that we would be successful if we kept doing things in the same way. We need to evolve our game once more, as teams will definitely have looked at how we play, and how they think they can stop us.”

NEED TO STAY AHEAD OF LAW EVOLUTION TOO

With there always being the threat of evolution when it comes to application and interpretation of rugby union’s myriad laws, and continued hints from overseas that there may be law changes that even if intentional or not could negate South Africa’s traditional strengths, Erasmus’ decision to bring in former top referee Jaco Peyper to his management makes a lot of sense.

“We’ve also had a close look at how we need to develop as a team and what the coaching and management groups need to look like to support the players,” said the Bok coach, who will from