Springboks legend Schalk Burger believes that Rassie Erasmus is failing to find the right balance due to the continual switch in styles and personnel.
South Africa won the 2019 and 2023 Rugby World Cups primarily based on set-piece, defence and an accurate kicking game, but they have looked to expand their game.
New Zealander Tony Brown was brought in as the team’s attack coach, and it appeared to have a positive effect in 2024 after they won 11 matches out of 13, with the two defeats by just one-point margins.
Springboks dip in 2025
They have suffered a dip recently, however, with losses to the Wallabies in Johannesburg and the All Blacks at Eden Park.
In the clash against Australia, they opted for an expansive and up-tempo approach, but they were caught out and conceded 38 unanswered points in a 38-22 reversal.
Since then, the Springboks have been more conservative and in Auckland, it was very much about the fundamentals of the sport.
Burger has duly questioned whether switching between game plans at opposite ends of the spectrum has harmed the team.
“I think our biggest worry will be, where’s our balance in the game? We obviously went from a pass-to-kick ratio of 12 to one, to almost playing like 2019 – one pass and kick, and quite conservative,” he said on The Verdict.
“Our team was set up that way, and then you’ve got to chase the game at 14-0 down. Lineout, maul, there was no reward. Whether they did it legally or illegally, you’ve got to move away from it.
“What we’ve built on with Tony Brown coming in is shape, but that shape disappeared. The problem is if you’re chasing the game and you haven’t run that shape, and you don’t have those options in and around, instead of saying, ‘listen here, let’s run that shape but let’s play the tighter options’, we’ve gone completely the other way.
“We’ve gone to kick it a lot, run straight at the defence, don’t have the flankers roaming wide in the trams – you don’t have a lot of movement around the ball carrier.
“Unfortunately, at the weekend we set up to lead from the front and we had to chase the game down.”
Rassie’s reaction to Eden Park loss
Following the loss at Eden Park, Erasmus has decided to make a number of alterations, particularly behind the scrum.
Former Bok centre and Stormers head coach, Robbie Fleck, who joined Burger on the show, stated it was “too many”, while the former back-row thinks that they will be reverting back to ‘Tonyball’ due to the inclusion of several talented and younger backs.
“It’s a completely new backline. It’s set up that we want to play ‘Tonyball’, we want to play more rugby, so can you flip and flop through styles like that in big Test matches? It’s hard to get right,” Burger said.
“There’s no Eben Etzebeth this weekend, again we can’t do the Bomb Squad, so we’re still set up with 5-3.
“With certain players, I think there’s a future to that. Damian Willemse at 12 is super exciting, I love his close contact skills. Also, if you play him as a playmaker, I think that should be exciting.”
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