Naas Botha has opened up on the impact which Springboks assistant coach Tony Brown has had on the world champions since joining their ranks last year.
Brown, who is a former All Blacks fly-half, is a vital cog in the Springboks machine and has been tasked with taking the world champions’ attack to new heights and helping them clinch a third successive Rugby World Cup title.
The 50-year-old is renowned as one of the best attack coaches in the game and prior to joining Boks head coach Rassie Erasmus’ backroom staff, he was successful in previous roles with Otago, the Highlanders and Japan.
His influence on the Boks has been immense as they are currently firmly entrenched as the top ranked side in the international arena after winning 13 out of 15 Tests this year.
While appearing on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin, ex-Boks fly-half Botha was asked what Brown has brought to the world champions and replied: “It’s difficult to give an answer that might make sense, because you don’t know how they coach, because you’re not in their inner circles.
‘There’s a difference in attitude from the players’
“But from the outside, you can see there’s a difference in attitude from the players.
“You can see there’s a difference in the way we’re playing, the way we’re thinking. So I would say somewhere along the line, Tony gave some fantastic advice to Rassie regarding, sometimes let’s try this, let’s do it this way.
“Maybe 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.
“So I think in a big picture sort of scenario, I think Tony brought quite a bit to the table for Springbok rugby.”
Brown’s role as the Boks’ attack guru sees him working closely with Erasmus and Botha believes the duo’s relationship is a major reason for their team’s success even though they essentially have different coaching philosophies.
“I love that because if you take big companies, 99% the boss appoints somebody that thinks like him,” said Botha.
“I think that’s where Rassie is actually getting it right, is to get somebody that’s thinking totally differently. And I think that’s quite important; is you don’t want only yes guys around you.
‘He’s quite a picky guy’
“I 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’s quite a picky guy.
“We all know that, but there must have been something about Tony Brown that impressed him for him to bring him to the table.”
And Botha believes adding Brown to the Boks’ coaching staff has brought a different dimension to their attacking play.
“Let’s be fair, if we go and we look at what we’ve done throughout the season, the quality of tries that we’ve scored. (In the past), we were a little bit one dimensional, and we’re not going to hide that.
“But I put it down to, we had to build a foundation to start operating from. And yes, at one stage, we were the best defensive team, and we still have fantastic defence, but we didn’t score the best tries.
“But I think after this season, you have to agree, Martin, that we scored fantastic tries, quality tries, tries that we created, not just pass, pass, and then we score.
“Some of the tries we scored were absolutely amazing.”