{"id":767104,"date":"2026-09-11T09:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/767104\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T09:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:22:11","slug":"nick-mallett-reveals-tony-browns-theory-on-overstimulated-springboks-as-rassie-erasmus-team-doesnt-get-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/767104\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Mallett reveals Tony Brown’s theory on ‘overstimulated’ Springboks as Rassie Erasmus’ team doesn’t get ‘worse’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Mallett has revealed Tony Brown\u2019s theory as to why the Springboks<\/a> are notoriously slow starters.<\/p>\n

South Africa lost the opening game of Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry Series against the All Blacks but have since gone 2-1 up ahead of the decisive fixture in Baltimore on Saturday.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t a one-off: Rassie Erasmus\u2019 side also lost the first match of the British and Irish Lions Series in 2021, and the trend continued in the Rugby Championship last year, when they were beaten 38-22 by Australia at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n

Tony Brown\u2019s theory on slow starters<\/p>\n

Speaking on SuperSport\u2019s Side Entry show, Mallett<\/a> revealed Springboks assistant coach Brown\u2019s theory as to why this is the case.<\/p>\n

According to the attack coach, Erasmus and his staff have a tendency to overload the players with information when they return to the camp, which can result in the players being overstimulated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking on the Breakdown show, and Tony Brown<\/a> spoke to Jeff Wilson about being with the Springboks<\/a>,\u201d Mallett explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he said it\u2019s amazing and that there\u2019s so much enthusiasm in the coaching that when the guys get together and remember that they haven\u2019t played together \u2013 the guys went to Argentina, that was a mostly different team that started that first Test in Ellis Park \u2013 you get the week before Ellis Park, the assistant coaches are so keen to get information to the players that they go on to the first game overstimulated by their coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says it\u2019s been a pattern with the Springbok team that we get better and better the longer the series is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using last year as a yardstick, Mallett predicts that the Springboks will produce their best performance of the year in the fourth Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry<\/a> Test match.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we should be better in the fourth game, not worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about last year: we lost to Australia, scraped a win over Australia in Cape Town, we lost a hard game at Eden Park, and the fourth game we cleaned up in New Zealand in Wellington. So the team doesn\u2019t get worse; we get better the longer we stay together as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Smit: Malcolm Marx is the best Springboks hooker ever<\/a><\/p>\n

Shimmy: South Africa\u2019s reserve scrum is the only one that can compete with Springboks\u2019 first-choice pack<\/a><\/p>\n

Why the lack of Springbok changes<\/p>\n

Erasmus has surprisingly stuck with largely the same matchday 23 for the last three matches of the RGR series, making just two changes for the fourth Test \u2013 one of which was injury-enforced, with Cheslin Kolbe breaking his jaw.<\/p>\n

Former Boks lock Victor Matfield states that had South Africa won the opening game at Ellis Park, then the head coach would have made more changes throughout the series. While Erasmus\u2019 side won two of the three matches in South Africa, Matfield is certain that they will be aiming for a 3-1 series victory and that\u2019s why there hasn\u2019t been more rotation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely believe if we didn\u2019t lose that first game, there would have been some changes. I think that just put us under pressure, and we had to win both games,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Adding: \u201cWe were joking about it that the series is done here in South Africa, but for Rassie and for this team, they want to win the series. They want to make it 3-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said in the beginning that for New Zealand, if they get to 2-2, it will actually be a win for them because I didn\u2019t really think they believed they could come and win in South Africa, which they didn\u2019t. But in the four games, they might get a chance at 2-2.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Schalk Burger hits out at Cam Roigard\u2019s \u2018gamesmanship\u2019: \u2018That\u2019s not called for in our game\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Mallett has revealed Tony Brown\u2019s theory as to why the Springboks are notoriously slow starters. South Africa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,620,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-767104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767104","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=767104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}