Sir Steve Hansen urges Dave Rennie to pinch ‘one or two things’ from Springboks but All Blacks shouldn’t ‘copy’ Rassie Erasmus
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and an inset of ex-All Blacks boss Sir Steve Hansen.
Former All Blacks head coach Sir Steve Hansen has warned Dave Rennie of falling into the trap of trying to copy Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks.
Having been part of two Rugby World Cup-winning coaching staffs with New Zealand, the second as head coach, Hansen knows a thing or two about creating a successful environment, game plan and overall winning formula, and believes that it would be a mistake for the All Blacks to copy too much of what their greatest rivals are doing.
South Africa have replicated New Zealand’s feat by winning successive Rugby World Cup titles, and ahead of the 2026 international season, they are the number one-ranked team in the world.
Since Rassie Erasmus reclaimed the head coaching reins from Jacques Nienaber, the side also ended the All Blacks‘ stronghold on the Rugby Championship, clinching the trophy in 2024 and 2025, while New Zealand have endured a turbulent two seasons, which led to the dismissal of head coach Scott Robertson and the hiring of Rennie as his successor.
During this successful period for the Springboks, Erasmus has deployed several innovative tactics, including the infamous ‘Bomb Squad’ replacements, open play lineouts, and ploys to exploit the lawbook, while also placing a bigger focus on hybrid and versatile players like Andre Esterhuizen and Marco van Staden.
Take elements from the Springboks, don’t copy everything
While there have been some flops along the way, many of the ploys and risks have been rather successful and have led to calls from supporters and pundits for other teams to follow suit.
However, Hansen says that just because it works for South Africa doesn’t mean that it has universal application, having learned that the hard way during his time coaching in Wales and Japan.
He revealed as much during an interview on the DSPN podcast when he agreed with the show’s host Martin Devlin that copying the Boks would be a mistake.
“With what Rassie Erasmus has done, it just seems like everyone in World Rugby is looking to that going, ‘Well, that’s the model. Everyone has to do the same model, has to react the same way, behave the same way, select the same way, treat their players the same way’,” Devlin said as he explained his point of view.
“I keep arguing, and maybe I’m an old man shouting at the moon, that you can take elements of it, but I’m just not so sure or convinced yet that New Zealand can follow that exact same model that is right for our country. What are your thoughts?”
“Well, I’m with you,” Hansen replied.
“Look, one of the things I’ve learned both coaching in Wales and Japan is that what works with New Zealanders doesn’t always work with other people. How you coach in one country doesn’t mean you have to coach like that because you’ve got different cultures, you’ve got different backgrounds, and various different things happening within the place that you’re coaching in.”
Sir Steve Hansen: The art of being a good coach
While he believes that going the whole hog and copying everything the Springboks are doing would be a mistake for the All Blacks, he does encourage that Rennie and his staff do nick an idea or two that they think will suit their style of play and player pool.
“So, what’s happening in South Africa is what’s happening, yes there are one or two things that you can look at and say: ‘Yeah, I’d pinched that idea, but that idea there may not suit us.’ I think that’s the art of being a good coach, you can work out what suits your team and what doesn’t,” he explained.
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Hansen spoke glowingly about the new NZ Rugby board and how they handled the dismissal of Robertson, as well as the process they went through to hire Rennie as his replacement.
And now he is keen to see what the new coaching team can achieve, particularly with the quality of forwards that New Zealand has at the moment. He singled out the front-row as a real position of strength for the team going forward with props who are able to get the job done at the set-piece but have far more to their game that just scrums and lineouts.
“I look forward to the group that is taking the All Blacks now, working out how they’re going to play with the talent they’ve got. We’ve got big props that can scrum, but they can also play rugby,” he continued.
“When New Zealand teams have forwards that can do the hard yards and do their primary roles like scrum, breakdowns, and do the lineout stuff, their set piece work, but they can also play rugby. We’ve always traditionally been a strong rugby team.”
