Ex-England star describes one area of Springbok strength as ‘just mental’ and his ‘genius’ verdict on Rassie Erasmus
Pieter-Steph du Toit leads out the Springboks last Saturday versus Scotland and, inset, coach Rassie Erasmus
Former England full-back Mike Brown has spoken in awe about the Springbok squad depth now available to Rassie Erasmus, claiming the recent addition of “more weapons” has made it “more harder” for everyone else to catch up.
The reigning back-to-back Rugby World Cup champions have responded with a 10-match winning run since last September’s 24-17 Eden Park loss to New Zealand.
Erasmus’ Springboks bounced back from that narrow defeat by posting a record win over the All Blacks the following weekend in Wellington, and they have since beaten Argentina (twice), Japan, France, Italy, Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland.
Having hammered the Welsh 73-0 in Cardiff when the team last met in November, there is every expectation that South Africa’s current winning streak will extend to 11 Test matches next Saturday in Durban when Steve Tandy’s side visit in round three of the new Nations Championship.
“It’s incredible what they have built there…”
The Boks have beaten England 45-21 and Scotland 42-28 in recent weekends to commence a 2026 Test campaign which includes next month’s eagerly awaited Great Rivalry tour of South Africa by New Zealand. That will see three home Test matches take place in Johannesburg (two) and Cape Town before the four-match series closes in Baltimore in the USA.
It’s an onerous schedule that also includes an August 8 Test away to Argentina before taking on Dave Rennie’s All Blacks, but Brown, the 72-cap retired England full-back, believes South Africa have the strength in depth to thrive despite the matches coming thick and fast.
Appearing in the latest edition of The Good, The Bad & The Rugby, Brown said: “I don’t think I have seen a team with that much depth at international level. Usually, you get a bit of a drop-off when someone else new comes in, but it’s almost seamless; they just slot in straight away. Whoever it is, it doesn’t matter.
“Like, against England, two of the rugby legends of South Africa drop out before the game (Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth), two guys come in seamlessly. It’s just mental. So how do you beat them? It doesn’t matter what team they pick at the moment – and that’s from first choice down to three, four, five – it’s just incredible the depth they have, and that takes effort and time.
“What they are doing over there and what Rassie does, he must be a genius, a rugby genius anyway in what he is doing and what he has built over there and how he has done it and how he goes about things in terms of his preparation, creating that depth of player.
“But also what he does in games to get them over the line and the choices he makes technically and tactically, how emotionally he gets them up for every game and just to consistently and relentlessly keep throwing out those performances and getting over the line and getting those wins – it’s incredible what they have built there.”
Brown’s assessment was followed by host Alex Payne asking ex-Scotland back-rower John Barclay, another GBR guest, if the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia was already South Africa’s tournament to lose comfortably?
“You look at how their players are managed, a lot of them play in Japan, not playing long seasons,” Barclay began. “They have these alignment camps throughout the year where new players are brought in, the amount of players they are blooding over the course of the next 12 months probably, so it’s hard to look at them and say it’s actually probably not theirs to lose; it absolutely is. No other country has that level of depth. Probably the only team close would be France.”
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Brown agreed. “Definitely. If you look at just depth, like what France are doing with the team that they have played recently and they are getting wins, England are still trying to find their feet, Ireland are going through transition, Australia aren’t anywhere near yet, Scotland just can’t quite get over the line in big games, or some big games.
“I don’t know who I have missed but in terms of everyone else, New Zealand still going through a bit of transition again in finding their way, so yeah, it’s definitely South Africa with France hot on their heels and everyone else playing catch-up really.”
The former England No.15, who played his final Test match versus South Africa in Cape Town in 2018, reckoned South Africa are a more complete team heading into the 2027 finals compared to their teams that won the title in 2019 and 2023. “I do think they have got more weapons, outside backs who are exciting and dangerous, and that makes it even more scary for everyone else,” he said.
“They can either run through you for 80 minutes, they can play a set-piece game with their kicking game and territory or they can unleash their X-factor with (Cheslin) Kolbe and (Damian) Willemse out wide, people like that to name a couple, so that makes it even more harder for everyone else to catch up.”