Strategic Boks show misfiring and in crisis England and Wales what they’re missing

Springbok rugby has never been stronger. By contrast, English and Welsh rugby are in crisis, and are looking to their South African counterparts for answers.

England went down 29-20 to the Boks last Saturday, recording their fifth consecutive defeat of the season, while Wales slumped to a historic low when they lost 52-20 to Australia a day later.

Both teams are under pressure to rebound this weekend. England should beat Japan at Twickenham, but the Dragons will be hard pressed to live with the Boks in Cardiff.

Meanwhile, the Boks have been universally praised following their recent win at Twickenham. Clearly South Africa are getting a lot right, both on and off the field.

Since winning a second consecutive World Cup in 2023, Rassie Erasmus’s charges have cracked on to claim a Rugby Championship title. The push to develop the game plan and squad – and use 52 players across 13 matches – hasn’t compromised their quest for results.

If they beat Wales this Saturday, they will become the first Bok side to win all of their northern hemisphere tour fixtures since 2013.

The 2024 season could well be remembered as one of the most successful in South African rugby history – outside of a World Cup –and mark the beginning of an era of dominance.

Long road to redemption

Not long ago, New Zealand set the standards at Test and club level.

The All Blacks won two World Cups and seven Rugby Championship titles between 2010 and 2018, while the Kiwi franchises lifted the Super Rugby trophy six times during that period.

New Zealand had the best coaches, players and structures. Their central-contracting system was the envy of the rugby world, as were their conditioning plan and mental strength initiatives.

In many ways, the way rugby was structured in New Zealand contrasted the set-up in South Africa. At the time, an “every team for itself” philosophy held sway.

Heyneke Meyer was the last Bok coach to preside over a clean sweep of the northern nations in 2013. In the aftermath of the final tour fixture against France, Meyer highlighted the strong culture within the team and the ability to overcome adversity. But at that stage, the interests of the Boks, SA Rugby and the respective franchises were far from aligned.

The Boks were forced to play catch-up whenever they congregated for an international campaign. In the lead-up to the 2015 Test season, only three players passed Meyer’s fitness tests.

South Africa went on to lose all of their Rugby Championship fixtures, and suffered a historic loss to a more explosive Japan outfit at the World Cup in England.

When the Boks lost 57-15 to the All Blacks in 2016, there was an outcry, but nobody was particularly surprised, given the gulf between the two nations, on and off the field.

Conditioning key to success

In late 2016, a national coaching indaba was staged in Cape Town.

Unfortunately, coach Allister Coetzee’s pleas for collaboration fell on deaf ears, as the franchises and provinces endeavoured to do what they had done for the better part of 100 years: look after their own interests.

The much-hyped – and much-needed – national conditioning plan only received the green light several rounds into the 2017 Super Rugby season. Unsurprisingly, the franchises and the Boks went on to sustain further losses to New Zealand teams, with the 57-0 loss to the All Blacks in Albany marking the nadir of the nightmare.

Why is this particularly relevant now, eight years later?

The Boks are the best team in the world, and are setting the standards with regards to conditioning, while England and other teams are struggling to keep up.

England have lost two conditioning coaches in a few months, and plans to boost the standard of fitness at clubs across the country have yet to bear fruit.

Following the recent loss to South Africa, England coach Steve Borthwick said his players simply aren’t fit enough. Recent results support this statement, as England have failed to score a point in the all-important fourth quarter in five of their past six Tests.

Nowadays, the Boks are the best finishing team in the business, and have only been outscored in the fourth quarter on one occasion this season (3-0, in the loss to Argentina in Santiago del Estero).

This reputation has been hard earned.

After Erasmus was appointed in January 2018, I sat down with the coach for a wide-ranging interview. He told me South Africa had the players to be the best team in the world, and spoke about his plans to whip them into shape.

At the time, I didn’t truly appreciate what he intended to do, or why he highlighted the need for greater “scrum conditioning”.

Seven years later, it’s a lot clearer, as Erasmus’s conditioning plan has paved the way for the development of the Bomb Squad – the group of reserves that lifts the intensity of the team in the dying moments – and possibly the most unrelenting scrum the world has seen.

Appointing the right people

Like all great coaches, Erasmus has looked to surround himself with the best people in the business.

Jacques Nienaber played a key role in the development of the side up until 2023, while industry leaders such as Aled Walters and subsequently Andy Edwards changed the nation’s approach to conditioning. Mzwandile Stick is yet another coach who has boosted the team’s work rate.

Attack coach Tony Brown has received a lot of credit for the team’s adventurous approach in 2024, but the Boks could not attack at such a high tempo – or defend with the relentless intensity – without maintaining the highest levels of fitness.

This past week, Sir Clive Woodward – who guided England to the 2003 World Cup title – praised Erasmus for how he has transformed the Boks into a world-beating side in recent years.

Woodward went as far to say that England and Wales could take a leaf out of Erasmus’s book, in terms of how he has managed the national side, and how he has restructured South African rugby to boost rather than hinder the Boks.

Erasmus was criticised by some in the early part of his tenure for using the word “alignment” at every opportunity. But in his capacity as director of rugby and head coach, Erasmus certainly walked the talk, ensuring that everyone in South African rugby worked towards a common goal.

Seven years later, Erasmus continues to tinker with the system to ensure South African rugby remains ahead of the chasing pack.

While he’s no longer the director of rugby, he has pushed for the appointment of several experts who have the capacity to strengthen the respective departments while he steers the Boks towards the 2027 World Cup campaign – and possibly a third consecutive title.

This has been a stellar season, but if Erasmus and his counterparts in SA Rugby remain aligned, the Boks may take things even further in the years to come. DM