Rassie Erasmus continues to lead Springbok tactical evolution

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Love it or hate it, head coach Rassie Erasmus will continue to innovate as the Springboks look to find the smallest edge on the rugby field to take their game to the next level against opponents.

On Saturday, Erasmus made the rugby world notice his ingenuity again, as the Boks conjured up two different tactical plays in the clash against Italy in Gqeberha that caught many off guard.

The first was a short kick-off to generate a scrum shortly after the game started and this is the little bit of innovation that blew up on X (formerly Twitter) with pundits and couch critics tearing into the Boks for finding another way to bend rugby’s laws.

While they’ve found a new reason to moan about the world champions, South African supporters have been lapping this up.

It’s special to witness the out-of-the-box thinking of coaches in an ever-evolving sport. Traditionalists will cling to things staying the same in rugby, but to keep the game relevant and draw engagement, these innovations are needed. And there was absolutely nothing that brought the game into disrepute when it came to this little bit of tactical deviation.

Erasmus explained they wanted an early scrum to put Italy under pressure. Last weekend Italy got the ball out of the scrum quicker than normal, and the Boks wanted to counter that. The tactic flopped as the Boks conceded a free kick off it. Italy didn’t score, so they could not do the short kick-off again.

Those two generated mauls, copied from a school’s team in Stellenbosch, were special and not expected at all. It brought two tries and because the Italians were caught off guard by it, they could not defend it properly. It’s a different scenario when a maul is started from a lineout and the opposition is set to defend.

Both times, the manufactured maul from open play was illegally sacked and for the first try, the Boks could play the advantage to have Canan Moodie go over for the try. With the second one, hooker Malcolm Marx scored directly from it.

The debate over the kick-off and open-play rolling mauls will continue to lead the conversation over the next couple of weeks. There will certainly be calls to change the laws that will ban both, especially from Erasmus’ detractors in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. They’ve always looked to find something wrong in how the Boks do things on the field.

It has been quiet on that front for a while, but now the attacks on South African rugby will start again.

However, for as long as the Springbok coaches can innovate within the laws of the game, they will do it. And the importance of former international referee Jaco Peyper in their midst as laws advisor can’t be underestimated. The world champions have an expert that can show them where the grey areas are and how to navigate those.

The open-play maul could be a thing of the past for matches over the next couple of months as teams will plan to counter it. But the Boks should be encouraged to use it in the Rugby Championship later this year.

As for the short kick-off, Springbok supporters would probably like to see it again soon. This time, though, the scrum must work to build that early platform.