All Blacks hero weighs in on Sir Steve Hansen’s ‘copycat’ Springboks argument after Scott Robertson ‘went away’ from New Zealand’s ‘strength’
New All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and former boss Scott Robertson.
Rugby World Cup winner Stephen Donald expects Dave Rennie to go down a very different route to Scott Robertson, who he claims tried to imitate the Springboks.
South Africa are the back-to-back world champions and are still leading the way looking ahead to the next global tournament in 2027.
They have taken over the mantle from New Zealand as the game’s innovators, with Rassie Erasmus reshaping how the game is played.
Scott Robertson’s possible mistake
Donald therefore believes previous All Blacks boss, Scott Robertson, attempted to take aspects of the Boks’ game.
Referencing the comments from Sir Steve Hansen last week, who discussed whether they should follow South Africa’s path, the former fly-half insists that Rennie needs to go back to New Zealand’s traditional strengths.
“I saw some quotes from the great Sir Steve and he was talking about how South Africa is out there at the moment but it doesn’t mean you have to copycat everything and he was referring to things like the [bench] splits and the hybrid players, and all this sort of thing,” he said on The Aftermatch with Kirst and Beav.
“We all have our different strengths as nations. I think last year and the year before we probably fell into thinking that’s how you win Test rugby and probably went away from what our boys are so gifted and talented in.
“Dave Rennie, if he brings something back to this All Blacks team, it will be speed and it will be tempo as far as the style of play.
“If you look at how the Hurricanes are going, how the Chiefs are playing, if you can mould that with a bit of streetwise smarts from the Crusaders and their tough forward pack… I think you’re going to get a fairly good XV.”
Massive Springboks series
While there is the inaugural Nations Championship to look forward to, The Greatest Rivalry series will ultimately determine the success of the All Blacks’ season.
They will tour South Africa in August, taking on all four of their franchises and going head-to-head in four Tests – the last one on neutral soil in the USA.
“Of course, we don’t see as much of the South Africans as we used to, as far as club and provincial level, they’re up in the URC,” Donald added.
“The Champions Cup is getting decided at the moment, it’s a French team versus an Irish team and none of the South African teams went too deep, but I don’t think it will be an area of concern.
“Obviously, it’s well stated that a lot of them are in Japan and when you think back to the days of Super Rugby, quite often New Zealand might have two teams in the final but the Springboks were still either world champs or winning and being very competitive as well.
“It doesn’t always translate. At the end of the day, you just need 23 guys to go and do the job, and we know the depth that they’ve got when they’re thrown in together under the Rassie regime.”