{"id":572708,"date":"2026-08-18T12:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/572708\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T12:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T12:46:09","slug":"sir-steve-hansen-springboks-at-their-most-vulnerable-all-blacks-have-a-big-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/572708\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Steve Hansen: Springboks at their ‘most vulnerable’, All Blacks have a ‘big advantage’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legendary All Blacks boss Sir Steve Hansen believes that the Springboks<\/a> are at their \u201cmost vulnerable\u201d this weekend.<\/p>\n

Rassie Erasmus\u2019 side haven\u2019t played since securing a narrow victory over Los Pumas in Argentina a fortnight ago, a match that saw several players return from injury, including the likes of Siya Kolisi, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dave Rennie\u2019s side has played three of the United Rugby Championship clubs and have been able to test combinations and become accustomed to the demands of playing in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks\u2019 advantage<\/p>\n

Those games have given New Zealand<\/a> a massive advantage heading into Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry<\/a> series opener against the Springboks<\/a> at Ellis Park, according to the 2015 Rugby World Cup-winning head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big advantage of touring like this is you get to give your players the opportunity to play against opposition that you know you\u2019re going to beat, let\u2019s be honest,\u201d Hansen<\/a> explained on the Rugby Unity podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what are you practicing? You\u2019re practicing the things you want to be able to do to a really high level at test level, but you\u2019re practicing against opposition that wants to rip your head off, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what they\u2019re going to get on Saturday. The South Africans are going to come out and want to be really, really physical, slow the game down, and then they\u2019ll try to speed it up when they bring on their reserves, with the big forwards coming on and then say, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s go to another gear.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the All Blacks have experienced all that. They\u2019ve had the opportunity to practice. Their combos have been pretty good, and I think they\u2019ve been quite smart in how they\u2019ve selected the teams. You can see they\u2019re selecting combinations rather than a straight-out Test team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks haven\u2019t got any \u2018negative feedback\u2019 from World Rugby as Rassie Erasmus and Jaco Peyper hit back at accusations<\/a><\/p>\n

Will the Springboks be undercooked?<\/p>\n

Hansen feels that the Springboks could be lacking match fitness heading into the first Test match, considering how many players have just come back from injury. While he believes this plays into the All Blacks\u2019 favour, he is wary of making the visiting team the favourites for the clash in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa will be at their most vulnerable in this game because they haven\u2019t played together for a while, because of injuries, with no game time available to them other than the Argentinian Test, where they didn\u2019t take a lot of their top liners,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would imagine it\u2019s an advantage to New Zealand because of that, but then you take into account that it\u2019s home and you\u2019re playing the number one team in the world. So it\u2019s going to be a good encounter. Exciting. Looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The All Blacks have had injuries of their own with Rennie stating after the victory over the Bulls that the coaching staff wasn\u2019t overly confident that Damian McKenzie would be fit to face the Springboks.<\/p>\n

They have also called up scrum-half Noah Hotham with Cortez Ratima nursing an injury, while hooker Codie Taylor only made his first appearance on the tour at Loftus.<\/p>\n

Top 10 flankers in rugby: Springboks machine tops chart from All Blacks great and Ireland\u2019s most versatile forward<\/a><\/p>\n

Standouts versus Bulls and ready replacement for Damian McKenzie<\/p>\n

If McKenzie is available this weekend, Hansen says that Beauden Barrett is a \u201cready\u201d replacement and could line up in the number 15 jersey after his performance versus the Bulls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we saw people like Codie Taylor get on the field and get some game time, and he came through it really well,\u201d he said as he ran through the standout performers in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHis experience made a big difference to their scrum penalties. I really like Kyle Preston; he clears the ball really well. So, I think he\u2019s going to be pushing for a spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cDave Rennie said that both Will Jordan and Cam Roigard will be available, but they\u2019re sweating a little bit on McKenzie. So, I think they\u2019ve got a ready replacement with Barrett; whether he starts or comes off the bench, he can cover those two roles the same as McKenzie does.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie issues Cam Roigard update as All Blacks boss opens up on Rassie Erasmus snub<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got Leroy Carter, who played outstandingly, I thought. Josh Moorby is all over the place; he can play full-back and play centre, he can play wing, and he gets the ball; he is an excitement machine, isn\u2019t he? Like he just creates space for himself and others. So there\u2019s plenty to be able to pick from.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyrel Lomax getting game time was important for him. He\u2019s a guy who needs to play on a regular basis to be at his best \u2013 getting him out there was good. Locks, I don\u2019t know who they\u2019re going to take. Whether they play Tupou Vaa\u2019i at six and take a combination of Josh Lord, Sam Darry, and Vaa\u2019i, or Fabian Holland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say Holland will definitely be one of them. So the other two slots, they\u2019ve got three or four really good candidates. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to be short on people to pick and form.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018One of the best human beings I\u2019ve known\u2019 \u2013 The magic behind Dave Rennie\u2019s remarkable rise to the All Blacks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary All Blacks boss Sir Steve Hansen believes that the Springboks are at their \u201cmost vulnerable\u201d this weekend.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1463,1464,111,43,139,69,6327,213],"class_list":["post-572708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}