Sir Steve Hansen has had a fair feeling 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.
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.
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.
“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 yourselve
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
