Justin Marshall reveals why Tony Brown’s switch from Springboks to All Blacks caught him by surprise
Legendary New Zealand scrum-half Justin Marshall has admitted that he is surprised that highly rated attack coach Tony Brown is set to leave his role with the Springboks to join the All Blacks.
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) confirmed on Sunday that Brown will join the All Blacks’ backroom staff from 2028 on a two-year contract.
He is currently employed as the Boks’ attack coach and is off contract at the conclusion of the current world champions’ Rugby World Cup 2027 campaign in Australia.
Major coup for New Zealand Rugby
The 51-year-old is widely regarded as one of the best attack coaches in the world, and his acquisition is viewed as a major coup for NZR despite there being uncertainty over current All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and his backroom staff’s future beyond next year’s global showpiece in Australia.
Brown, who made 18 appearances at fly-half for the All Blacks between 1999 and 2001, has had great success since joining South Africa’s coaching staff in 2024.
Since he joined the Boks’ ranks, there has been a notable improvement in their attacking play, and they have won back-to-back Rugby Championship titles and completed two unbeaten end-of-year tours.
Although Boks head coach Rassie Erasmus was keen to retain his attack coach’s services beyond his current contract after the 2027 Rugby World Cup, Brown has made no secret that he wishes to coach his home country.
And while Marshall is happy that Brown will become part of the All Blacks’ coaching staff from 2028, he said he was caught off guard by the news.
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“I think it’s great. I know Brownie really well and I see him often because having the All Blacks playing in South Africa and being over there, I know that he’s really happy in his role over there,” he told The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast.
“So that news to me is (surprising) news because I know how much he enjoys what he’s doing now.”
Marshsall revealed that Brown told him that working with Erasmus was the main reason why he enjoyed being part of the Springboks’ coaching set-up.
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‘He doesn’t demand anything’
“And the thing that he actually said to me, it was how much he enjoys coaching with Rassie (Erasmus),” he said. ‘The guy just enables me to be myself and he doesn’t demand anything.
“Because you see Rassie, and I played against Rassie, he’s one of those guys (who would) always come up and say g’day, so that’s cool because he’s still himself, but you look at him from the exterior and you go, ‘Sh*t, he’d probably be a pretty hard guy to work alongside’.
“Not the case. And Brownie reinforced that to me. So the fact that he’s wanting to move on from an environment like that does surprise me because everybody, all they ever want is a healthy environment to work in.
“If you’ve got that, then you’re functioning at your best, the people around you, you’ll get the best out of. So the fact that Brownie’s kind of said he wants to do that when I know how happy he is, is news to me.”
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