{"id":316952,"date":"2025-12-15T09:35:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T09:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/316952\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T09:35:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T09:35:14","slug":"bryan-habanas-theory-for-springboks-success-under-autocratic-rassie-erasmus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/316952\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryan Habana’s theory for Springboks success under ‘autocratic’ Rassie Erasmus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Springboks legend Bryan Habana believes that the \u201ccontinuity\u201d the national team has enjoyed since the start of Rassie Erasmus\u2019 reign has been crucial in their success.<\/p>\n

South Africa won two Rugby World Cups prior to the 2018 \u2013 in 1995 and 2007 \u2013 but they never enjoyed an era of sheer dominance at the highest level.<\/p>\n

That has changed over the past seven years under Erasmus<\/a> following back-to-back World Cup titles and a 2025 campaign which has seen the Boks<\/a> cement themselves as the number one side with two years to go until the next global tournament.<\/p>\n

Springboks\u2019 transformation<\/p>\n

Habana<\/a> obviously gives a huge amount of the credit to the head coach, who has helped transform their fortunes after a difficult couple of years under Allister Coetzee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had Rassie Erasmus, who has been involved in SA Rugby structures since about 2007 in some way, shape or form, but there was immediate continuity and immediate alignment \u2013 Rassie put some firm boundaries in place,\u201d the 42-year-old told the Business of Sport<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his coaching style is very autocratic and very firm in various ways. It\u2019s not shape up or ship out, he puts certain things in place and actually allows players to take accountability and responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not spoon-fed, but there is continuity. It\u2019s the first time ever over three World Cup cycles that we\u2019ve had a singular person overseeing the whole running of it, which has never happened before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springboks legend Bryan Habana: My father stole a lot of money from me<\/a><\/p>\n

Equally, Erasmus has a wide talent pool to choose from and a core of experienced players that have been through plenty of tough times to build their mental fortitude.<\/p>\n

Experience and youth<\/p>\n

\u201cThat being said, to the point about resilience, Eben Etzebeth was captain when South Africa lost 57-0 in Palmerston North [against the All Blacks], and the hurt, the resilience, the character building of that journey, of this team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Rassie has done phenomenally well over the course of the last seven years, he\u2019s constantly brought players in to learn from the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cEben Etzebeth, the most capped Springbok ever, Siya Kolisi has just become a Test centurion, and you have Willie le Roux, Handre Pollard, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel all on 70, 80, 90, 100 Test matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then he\u2019s blooded in this new group of players, such as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and he\u2019s got this really great alignment from the top all the way down to junior level rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there has been incredible work from the players and coaches, Habana did not forget the work of the governing body, who have also played their part.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlignment has been a very key factor, support of that alignment from the corporate structure, so SA Rugby, has been incredibly key,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the most incredible rugby brain \u2013 the most innovative and out of the box thinking \u2013 and the loudest, Rassie\u2019s been able to say: \u2018This is what I believe needs to be done. We need more sponsors, more funds, we need x, y, z\u2019, and it\u2019s been aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Rating every Springboks forward in 2025: World\u2019s best ends long wait while veteran\u2019s performances \u2018significantly deteriorate\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks legend Bryan Habana believes that the \u201ccontinuity\u201d the national team has enjoyed since the start of Rassie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[125176,348,3482,50,5903,4247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-316952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-bryan-habana","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}