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Sir Steve Hansen labels Springboks 'very beatable'
By Ned Lester
Sir Steve Hansen has had a fair few rumbles against the Springboks in his time, and while the former All Blacks coach knows all too well what a South African pack can do on the field, he also knows what goes up must come down.
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The leading man in one of rugby’s all-time greatest teams, Hansen led New Zealand to Rugby World Cup glory in 2015 with a cast of now-household names, backing up the team’s winning effort in 2011’s showpiece event.
Similarly, the Springboks are now in their second consecutive reign as World Champions having pipped the All Blacks in 2023’s World Cup final in Paris.
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It was a historic achievement by a historic team, but just as the All Blacks raised the bar for other nations and were eventually usurped as world No. 1, Hansen isn’t getting wrapped up in the moment, knowing the same fate will inevitably befall the men in green and gold in due time.
The coach was asked if the present-day Springboks side is just a step ahead of the competition, or if they are beatable with the right tactics.
“They’re very beatable, they’ve been beaten on a regular basis. Ireland beat them, New Zealand should have beaten them and Argentina beat them,” he answered on DSPN with Martin Devlin.
“They’re beatable, as is everybody, but the more they win, the more the myth grows and it makes it harder the more their confidence grows.
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“They rely a lot on their big men and, if they lose some of those big men, have they got big men to replace them? So far they have.
“They’ll force everybody else to become better at what they’re doing, just like what we did in that period from about 2011 through to ’19. We forced other teams to have to get better in areas they didn’t want to be.
“Every team will have a part of their game which will be as good as someone else’s game, another part will be better and some of it will be worse.
“If you can improve the bit that’s not as strong as the opposition then you become better yourselves.”
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There certainly haven’t been any questions over the Springboks’ depth during their current era, but after having the oldest team at last year’s Rugby World Cup and fielding a starting XV with an average age of 31 to begin 2024, the next generation will need to step in shortly.
For Hansen’s native New Zealand, he says the contrast in style of play is something to be embraced, not surrendered to regain the upper hand in the rivalry.
“Naturally, we’re a team that wants to use the ball, we’ve just got to be smart about how we use it, where we use it,” the Toyota Verblitz coach added.
“The game hasn’t changed, you’ve still got to do the job up front. The numbers one to five win you the Test matches. If they can get parity or get dominance then the game becomes easy for the rest of the group.”
Hansen was then asked to weigh in on the great debate over which team is better: his 2015 All Blacks or the current Springboks.
“I think you can go through every generational era of the sport and you’ll find teams… I always believe the 60s, the All Blacks’ 1960 era was a group of players that were amazing. They have big forwards that could play, they could play today’s modern game, those guys. So it’s too hard to compare them.
“You just so you just acknowledge that, well, what a wonderful side. And they’re playing to their strengths. And their game at the moment is very strong. And you know, back in our time, at my time, we were very strong. But there’s always been a team that’s been very strong through the ages.
“It’s disappointing we don’t get to play South Africa more often at a lower level. I think we’re missing that.”
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Hey Steve - people brush their teeth and/or shower "on a regular basis".
Saying that the Boks have been beaten on a regular basis is cheerleader talk. Or maybe just whiney bar talk.
NZ is improving fast, and may well win the next RWC. They should focus on doing so in a classier fashion.
Typical of Hansen's arrogance... "Very beatable"...
Pretty vague comment . Every team is beatable . It’s the very nature of sport . As is regurgitated , copy and paste “ journalism “ .
We are happy to live rent free 😂👍 woulda, shoulda, coulda
Unless a team goes through an entire season without a loss, they are by definition beatable.
The Springbok are unquestionably the best team in 2024 but with 2 losses, they are obviously beatable.
I think that was Hansen’s point.
Hansen never had a clue nevermind a point. The no1 boks team never lost
Everyone’s very beatable. Beat them then. En hou mond.
Think NZ have done that 62 times!
Probably more like beatable, instead of very beatable. This year, and often between WC cycles, Rassie roles the dice by mixing up his squads to build depth and also see how new guys go. When he gets to the ‘big’ games he tends to pick his main guys and a proper bench. What Hansen( struggle to refer to Sir Hansen, as I would then have to refer to Rassie as Meneer) should maybe comment on is the way the Boks are evolving and learning with Tony Brown on board. But always good to hear comments from ex coaches who are not accountable anymore
I love the “New Zealand should have beaten them.” part the best. Could, woulda, shoulda now constitutes an empirical argument.
Well, they lost two out of thirteen, both by one point, but they should have been beaten by another team, and all that means, they are very beatable and are beaten on regular basis.
Copium of such potency is the highest form of compliment.
He’s absolutely right about the point, that in an environment with one dominant team, other teams will inevitably close the gap in due time.
Another clickbait article for the Saffa fans to make the rest of us suffer their opinions
Well that's only fair as we have to suffer you.
Yet here you spew your bottom rung opinion
You generally make such good, insightful comments. This not being one of them.
Or you could just log off and go mow the lawn. Oh shucks, you probably don’t have a lawn.
Ok vacuum the carpet.
If the Springboks are very beatable then what does it say about teams like the All Blacks?
Shag makes a basic point. It's weird how pundits label teams that get beaten, "unbeatable", &/or label players who are regularly stopped, "unstoppable". Or somehow apply a mystical formula (no doubt taken from the depths of their back passages) that bestows the title of "world's best player" on an individual. The premise? If enough pundits say things, & if enough fans repeat things, then such things must be true. Bah humbug.
They actually got a hell of a lot better, d - the 2011 RWC final ABs couldn't have lived with the RWC winning 2015 team. That's when Shag should have stepped away - by 2019 he'd lost his mojo and his nerve.
Agreed. He'd had 12 years in the ABs coaching group by then. Stale as. Not nailing the BILs series & the RWC2019, almost seemed inevitable.
I'd love to hear Steve's opinion on whether the AB's decline started when Henry handed the coaching reins over.
AllBlacks could have should have but Boks did have.