{"id":827250,"date":"2026-07-27T16:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827250\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T16:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:12:09","slug":"ex-all-blacks-boss-steve-hansen-explains-why-rassie-erasmus-is-clever-with-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827250\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-All Blacks boss Steve Hansen explains why Rassie Erasmus is \u2018clever with risk\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former All Blacks boss Steve Hansen has run the rule over Rassie Erasmus\u2019 Springboks<\/a> squad and predicted the result of The Greatest Rivalry Test series.<\/p>\n

With excitement growing ahead of New Zealand\u2019s eight-match, old-school tour featuring four games against the leading South African club franchise as well as four Test matches, the 2015 Rugby World Cup-winning boss has given his take on the squad announcement by Erasmus.<\/p>\n

He has also stuck his head above the parapet and declared the result of the Test series, which will open with matches in Johannesburg (two) and Cape Town before the four-Test series takes place in the American city of Baltimore on September 12.<\/p>\n

Appearing on the latest episode of the Rugby Unity podcast, Hansen reflected on the 43-strong squad named by Erasmus, a selection that increased to 44 on Monday with the inclusion of prop Ntuthuko Mchunu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot too many weaknesses there\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, they\u2019re strong. They\u2019re very, very strong,\u201d vouched Hansen. \u201cThere\u2019s not too many weaknesses there. It\u2019s a big squad, so I\u2019m not sure if he [Erasmus] is going to be looking to use all those players or whether he\u2019s just wanting to reward everybody that he has had in the system and keep them in the system and keep growing them, but a very, very strong squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across their recent three-game Nations Championship<\/a> block featuring home wins over England, Scotland and Wales, Erasmus gave time to 43 players, including five debutants.<\/p>\n

Twenty-three made just one appearance in the Southern Series, highlighting the level of rotation used by the coach. However, rather than these selections being of an ad hoc variety, Hansen praised Erasmus and his fellow Springbok coaches for the clever way they picked their teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has built cohesion,\u201d Hansen reckoned when looking at the huge number of players capped by Erasmus this month. \u201cLike when he adds these young guys in, he doesn\u2019t throw them in ad hoc. He surrounds them with a core of people that are the cohesive unit, the cog of the team, so he has still got a large group of guys that have got great combinations and played with each other a lot and he just keeps adding in.<\/p>\n

Springboks slammed for \u2018legally correct but morally corrupt\u2019 tactics as outspoken pundit hopes All Blacks will get a \u2018hard referee\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the cohesion is actually getting stronger because he has now got someone that\u2019s played 10 Tests as a young player, might not be over a long period of time but they have trained together, they\u2019ve been in the system together for a long time. It\u2019s not just playing time, it\u2019s training time. There will be competitions in games where you\u2019re building combos, within the training session as well. So, if we just looked at it selection-wise, you might say he is taking some risk, but he\u2019s clever.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the coaching group are clever. It\u2019s not just Rassie; the whole group need to be given credit. They are good at making sure, okay, we\u2019ve got a solid block here of people that know what we want, how we want to do it, when we want to do it, and we\u2019ll just drip feed in some more people. And now that we have drip-fed that guy in for a wee bit, we might take him out and we\u2019ll drip-feed someone else in. But that core block stays the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hansen felt that despite this level of \u2018clever\u2019 variety Erasmus has brought to the Springboks<\/a>, new All Blacks boss Dave Rennie won\u2019t be distracted from what he to do. \u201cHe\u2019ll be driving his own bus. He won\u2019t be getting too worried about what Rasssie\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll reward the players that he feels have worked really well<\/a> in this last campaign and then he\u2019ll look to add people in that he believes will complement that group, and it\u2019s going to be interesting to see who they are. He\u2019ll have a strong squad, which he\u2019ll need obviously. South Africa have got plenty of depth at the moment, but it\u2019s a great opportunity for us to build some as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans are excited. I mean, they are seeing All Black<\/a> rugby being played the way that they expect it to be played: Highly skilled, highly fast and winning, and doing things that we expect from All Black teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the selections will be affected too much about what the external factors are thinking. It\u2019ll be their own conversations they\u2019re having about what direction they want to go in. They\u2019ll be having good robust discussions, knowing the men that are in there. So, with what they come up with, they\u2019ll be pretty clear about what they need and what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie has already picked his team for Springboks showdown as All Blacks boss details how travel disruptions have influenced selections<\/a><\/p>\n

Put on the spot by Rugby Unity<\/a> show presenter David Pembroke for a Test series prediction, Hansen said: \u201cFour Tests, could be two all. Look, it\u2019s going to be fantastic to sit back and watch it because there are contrasting styles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll learn a little bit more about the All Black team and about the South African team as well because they\u2019re going to have to front up against each other four times. So, you know, what style is actually making the better progress?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-Wallabies boss Ewen McKenzie, who was also on the show, added: \u201cWell, I\u2019m probably the same; it\u2019s hard to pick. It\u2019s going to be a matter of who blinks. I guess we know how South Africa is going to approach it, and we think we know what New Zealand might do.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand can maybe do other things as well, so we can\u2019t just make assumptions, and they have got that element of, because it\u2019s a new coaching setup etc, they have got that ability to morph a bit more than maybe South Africa do. So, across the series, New Zealand might have the ability to morph more.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa are probably going to approach it like they always approach it. So yeah, if New Zealand can find ways to put pressure on them, then they might have to that might create some stress in the South African setup with having to find solutions to things that maybe there hadn\u2019t been a problem before.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie\u2019s \u2018point of difference\u2019 verdict on All Blacks back-row selections and Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi snub<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s what I\u2019m hoping from a tactical point of view, that we\u2019re going to see everything on the table at some point and see what actually works. But in that context, yeah, two-all would be a great series for the world, for everyone watching. That would be a great outcome because it gives hope and whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what you\u2019d like to see as a neutral person, but in the end, I just want to see how the game works. I don\u2019t want the game to be just something that\u2019s not, you know, just some sort of belligerent, you know, I don\u2019t want to see 80 minutes of rolling mauls or whatever. That\u2019s not going to do anything anyone any good.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019d like to see skill rewarded. We need to make sure that it\u2019s not just all attack. Everyone\u2019s got to be kept honest by the referee and the refereeing, you got four different referees I assume. I don\u2019t know the refereeing appointments. So, that could have an influence as well. My bottom line is let\u2019s just hope the yellow cards aren\u2019t deciding outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-All Black adamant New Zealand concern can be \u2018easily fixed\u2019 with Springboks \u2018big boys\u2019 looming<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Blacks boss Steve Hansen has run the rule over Rassie Erasmus\u2019 Springboks squad and predicted the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,1736,44,760,1183,85,306176],"class_list":["post-827250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-steve-hansen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827250","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=827250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}