Tony Brown reveals how he is ‘inspiring’ the Springboks to ‘execute’ his ‘innovative’ attack
Tony Brown reveals his attacking philosophy and how he is inspiring the Springboks to execute his innovative plans after joining Rassie Erasmus' team.
Tony Brown admits he always knew that he would be a better coach than a player as he looks to evolve the Springboks’ attack.
The former All Blacks fly-half joined Rassie Erasmus’ backroom staff at the start of the year and has been tasked with taking the Boks’ attack to new heights and helping the side clinch a third successive Rugby World Cup title.
Brown has had immense success in previous roles with Otago, the Highlanders and Japan, helping the latter reach the Rugby World Cup knockouts for the first time in 2019.
His influence on the Springboks‘ attack has been clear to see following the side’s first six Test matches of the year and Brown has revealed how he has got the back-to-back world champions to buy into and execute his plans with confidence.
Evolving the Bok attack
Brown started his coaching career in Japan working as a player-coach with the Wild Knights and while he did represent the All Blacks, he always thought of himself as a better coach than a player.
“I was not overly talented but I understood the game really well and I tried to find different ways to play the game and I always knew that I’d be a better coach than I was a player,” he said on the Behind the Ruck podcast.
“I thought if I could get some players with a bit more talent than me and get them to understand the game and play the game a certain way, I thought I’d be a better coach.”
The former fly-half has certainly made his mark in the coaching arena and is widely respected for his work on attack and is viewed as a trendsetter in his expertise.
After immense success with Japan, Brown was lined up for a role with the All Blacks but turned down the offer, remaining loyal to Jamie Joseph who was passed over for the head coach role. Instead, he continued to innovate with the Brave Blossoms, who became renowned for their attacking ability.
However, the defensive side of the game in international rugby continues to dominate, so how does Brown adjust to the trends and get the Springboks players to back his plans?
“The game is moving so fast and in the last five or six years the defensive side of the game’s become so good,” he explained.
“There has been a lot of coaches influencing that from rugby league around the line speed and how to tackle and shut down the ball and dominate attacks.
“Defence has become a massive part of the game and there are so many really well-coached teams now, everyone specialises in defence, so it’s tough to create an attack that’s going to beat a really good defensive side, but that’s the challenge.
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“I always like to try and innovate and do different things to try and manipulate the defence versus letting them shut me down but it’s a challenge.
“Then the key part about being innovative and changing the game is trying to find little things, but you do need your players to first understand why you’re doing it, then they need to be able to execute it.
“So they need the skillset and not so much just the skillset but they need the belief that they’re going to be able to execute in that moment.”
Challenging the players
To achieve this, Brown aims to create situations in training where the players will face tougher challenges in executing their skills than they would in a game.
“I always try to innovate and give the players some really exciting things to do so then they actually get inspired to give it a go,” he added.
“You create a bit of a mindset around that if we get this right and execute then our game’s going to go to another level and no one is going to be able to stop us.
“For me the best part about rugby is trying to find ways to do it differently and try to inspire the players and give the players, not a free reign, but giving the players the belief and the opportunity to be great.”
Unpicking modern defensive system and succeeding on attack
Brown’s notion that defence is dominating the game is highlighted by the fact that the Springboks won their last two World Cups with arguably the best defensive system led by ex-head coach Jacques Nienaber.
But the attack guru believes that defence coaches do have tendencies that create opportunities for the attack.
“Most defence coaches and defensive systems have players in specific roles, so you can manipulate space if you get the options right,” he explained.
“Obviously the space in behind is always a tough one to defend because all defence coaches don’t want to concede in the front line so they have a lot more players in the front line.
“So you have to be able to have a good kicking game to make the most of the backfield space and then you need to be able to manipulate defenders to then create space elsewhere.
“With all rugby, I think if you can create speed on attack you’re always going to have more chance of succeeding around moving the ball to space so just finding different ways to create speed, momentum, and I always talk about shortening the defensive line so then that creates the space in the edges.
“Every time I create plans it’s all around that’s that sort of thing.”
