Former Springboks centre Robbie Fleck has offered an interesting explanation to their improvement with ball in hand over the past 18 months.
The best South African sides have always been physically dominant and that was a hallmark of their 2019 and 2023 Rugby World Cup triumphs.
However, head coach Rassie Erasmus believes that they need to expand their attacking game ahead of the next global tournament in Australia.
Improving the Springboks attack
Following that success in France, Erasmus brought in New Zealander Tony Brown and that has paid dividends with them playing some wonderful rugby since the previous World Cup.
Last Saturday, they produced a dominant display to swat aside Japan, scoring nine tries in a 61-7 victory over the Brave Blossoms.
That performance, allied by some of their other efforts in 2025, prompted Springboks legend Jean de Villiers to say on The Verdict podcast: “Now you add this attacking play, we are getting close to playing a fantastic brand of rugby.”
South Africa still place a huge emphasis on their set-piece, kicking and defence, but Fleck states that one significant development has made a big difference to their attacking improvement.
“It was probably to be expected to give away a couple of maul penalties from Japan’s side and there was inevitably going to be a yellow card at some stage with the illegal sacking of the maul,” he said.
“What was interesting was one of the tackles was a head high shot, which was a yellow, but you’ve got to think about how that comes about.
“Generally, the Japanese guys are a little bit smaller than our big ball carriers so that means that we are carrying exceptionally low at the moment.
“You talk about our attack and how it’s evolved, it’s also the fact that we’re not upright in the way we carry anymore. We’re carrying low, we definitely won that height battle and that’s led to the [Japanese] mistakes.
“It’s a combination of everything working together that delivers the pressure and the yellow card, but there are certain parts to our game which we weren’t good at a year or two ago that we have ramped up now, and body height is one of them.”
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France clash
The Springboks are still the number one side in the world having followed their Rugby Championship title retention with a victory over Japan.
They now head to France hoping to stay at the summit, a match which is likely to be the toughest of their November tour.
However, whatever happens this weekend, De Villiers insists that the nature of South Africa’s game means that they will not make it easy for Les Bleus.
“It just feels like the intensity on attack and defence is relentless. We don’t give anything easily away, everything is a fight.”