All Blacks legend Sir Steve Hansen does not believe that the Springboks are the all-conquering side some people have made them out to be.
South Africa claimed the Rugby World Cup title in 2023 – their second in a row – but they did not rest on their laurels in 2024.
Rassie Erasmus’ men won the Rugby Championship title for the first time since 2019 and were victorious in 11 of their 13 matches in 2024, with their two defeats – to Ireland and Argentina – both by just one point.
The Boks achieved all that despite some heavy rotation as they used 50 players during the Test season.
However, Hansen doesn’t necessarily see them as being way out in front.
‘Forcing everybody to become better’
“They’re very beatable, they’ve been beaten on a regular basis. Ireland beat them, New Zealand should have beaten them and Argentina beat them,” he told DSPN with Martin Devlin.
“They’re beatable, as is everybody, but the more they win, the more the myth grows and it makes it harder the more their confidence grows.
“They rely a lot on their big men and, if they lose some of those big men, have they got big men to replace them? So far they have.
“They’ll force everybody else to become better at what they’re doing, just like what we did in that period from about 2011 through to 2019. We forced other teams to have to get better in areas they didn’t want to be.
“Every team will have a part of their game which will be as good as someone else’s game, another part will be better and some of it will be worse.
“If you can improve the bit that’s not as strong as the opposition then you become better yourself.”
All Blacks development
Hansen watched on as the All Blacks under new head coach Scott Robertson endured a mixed season, which included successive defeats to the Springboks.
Those losses came in the middle of a disappointing Rugby Championship where they relinquished the title they had held since 2020.
New Zealand showed promise on their year-end tour, however, as they defeated England and Ireland in London and Dublin respectively before narrowly going down to France.
“Naturally, we’re a team that wants to use the ball, we’ve just got to be smart about how we use it, where we use it,” Hansen added.
“The game hasn’t changed, you’ve still got to do the job up front. The numbers one to five win you the Test matches. If they can get parity or get dominance then the game becomes easy for the rest of the group.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/sir-steve-hansen-claims-springboks-very-beatable-but-worried-myth-will-make-all-blacks-task-harder
