{"id":324125,"date":"2025-12-03T03:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/324125\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T03:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T03:21:12","slug":"the-south-african-verdict-on-bok-whisperer-assistant-coach-tony-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/324125\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African verdict on Bok whisperer assistant coach Tony Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Springboks flyhalf Naas Botha has credited Tony Brown<\/a> with bringing \u201cquite a bit to the table\u201d in terms of transforming South Africa<\/a> into an attacking juggernaut.<\/p>\n

The former All Blacks<\/a> first five is a renown attack specialist who for years worked under Jamie Joseph<\/a>, orchestrating Japan\u2019s rise to Rugby World Cup<\/a> quarter-finalists in 2019.<\/p>\n

After a stint as Highlanders<\/a> head coach, Brown took up a role within the Springboks coaching setup in 2024, where they have put up some of their biggest scores in Test rugby in the Erasmus era.<\/p>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus gives an insight into his plans for 2026, a year that will see his team face mostly Tier One opposition<\/p>\n

\"VideoSpringbok coach Rassie Erasmus gives an insight into his plans for 2026, a year that will see his team face mostly Tier One opposition<\/p>\n

Botha said from the outside looking in you could tell that Brown has made a difference in changing how the Boks play. The Kiwi coach has become a \u2018Bok whisperer\u2019 of sorts, getting the team to successfully try new methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to give an answer that might make sense, because you don\u2019t know how they coach, because you\u2019re not in their inner circles,\u201d Botha told DSPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut from the outside, you can see there\u2019s a difference in attitude from the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see there\u2019s a difference in the way we\u2019re playing, the way we\u2019re thinking. So I would say somewhere along the line, Tony gave some fantastic advice to Rassie regarding, sometimes let\u2019s try this, let\u2019s do it this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe some selections. He might even play a part there to say, if we want to get the ball (on the) outside, we need these kind of players.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think in a big picture sort of scenario, I think Tony brought quite a bit to the table for Springbok rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of significance to Botha was the fact that Erasmus had given Brown the chance to add to Springbok rugby, labelling him a \u201cpicky guy\u201d that was hard to have authority under.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that because if you take big companies, 99% the boss appoints somebody that thinks like him,\u201d said Botha.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s where Rassie is actually getting it right, is to get somebody that\u2019s thinking totally differently. And I think that\u2019s quite important; is you don\u2019t want only yes guys around you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Rassie also grew over the years into accepting other guys can contribute to the betterment of the team, to the betterment of the squad, to rugby knowledge, because he\u2019s quite a picky guy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Springboks flyhalf Naas Botha has credited Tony Brown with bringing \u201cquite a bit to the table\u201d in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-324125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}