Thursday 10 December 2015 22:25, UK
Schalk Brits has urged South Africa to ditch their conservative play in favour of a more expansive style.
Under Heyneke Meyer the Boks lost to Japan in the opening game of the Rugby World Cup, but fought back to make it to their semi-finals where they were beaten 20-18 by the All Blacks.
Following the World Cup exit, Meyer stepped down from his role as coach.
Brits' attacking philosophy is not one currently implemented by South Africa, who rely on big ball-carrying forwards to run directly at the opposition in order to wear tacklers down, but the 10-Test international believes the Springboks could learn from the team that knocked them out of this year's tournament.
"New Zealand, in the way they play, although we came very close in the World Cup semi-final, on average they are light years ahead from a playing point of view," said Brits.
"For me it feels like they have the confidence and they've got the support to play what they see.
"Hearing from ex-New Zealanders and playing with them in the northern hemisphere, the way they train is skill based.
"They work on micro-skills a lot, then try to incorporate that into the game plan. Whereas we focus just on the game plan and forget about the minor details that actually makes the big game plan work."
Brits is one of the more attacking forwards in the northern hemisphere but he says South Africa were reluctant to stick to an expansive style when the need for results intensified under Meyer.
"Heyneke did say in the news that he doesn't think South Africans have the skill base, but I think it comes down to the attitude of the coaches - and that's not only Heyneke but all across the board - to give players the confidence to play what they see.
"You will have a dip I think results-wise, but in the long term it will be better for our style and the way we want to play.
"We've got strong, big and fast guys, now it's just helping them to execute the skills under pressure, and that takes time.
"Unfortunately in South Africa there's always pressure to win, so that makes it very difficult. As soon as a coach comes under pressure, and that's all coaches, they tend to go back to a more conservative style of play."
Despite a feeling that the Springboks would have been more effective under a more entertaining style, Brits says he enjoyed his time working with Meyer.
"He was definitely one of the most passionate coaches I have worked under," said the Saracens hooker.
"He loves the game and carries his heart on his sleeve. It was a good experience to work under a coach like that.
"From his point of view he always just did what he felt was right for the team. Technically I think he had a good support staff around him.
"He was more of a player manager - like an Alex Ferguson - who left things to Johan van Graan, Richard Gray, and Pieter de Villiers, and he would jump in if he saw something he wanted a player to do."
Speculation continues to grow that former Stormers coach Allister Coetzee is the front-runner to take over from Meyer, though Coetzee is currently coaching in Japan having only left Cape Town in June.
Brits played under Coetzee for the Stormers before he left South Africa and though he was impressed by the 52-year-old, the two-time Premiership winner believes the appointment of the head coach is not as telling as the support that the coach brings with him.
"It depends who his coaching staff is. The big secret to Allister's success is the guys he's got around him.
"It doesn't help if you're got a great head coach but you don't have guys to implement things.
"From my experience lately the head coach plays a big role, but he doesn't coach as much as he used to.
"You've got your forward coach, the attack coach, your kicking coach - there are 20 different coaches, so it's the combination of who is takes with him that will be the secret to his success."
From my experience lately the head coach plays a big role, but he doesn't coach as much as he used to.
Brits plays under the belief that some teams could score more tries if they stuck to an an expansive game plan. He says Saracens' pragmatic style is used to break teams down and that patience is the key to their success.
"We try to strike when the time is right," he said. "We don't mind being boring until the time is there to execute.
"When Brendan Venter came in he said there's three things that you can train quickly; defence, your kicking game and the set piece. Those are the three things you work on and that ensures you don't lose a lot of games.
"With attack you need to be patient, and a lot of guys aren't patient.
"You get quick results from your defence and your kicking game, but at the end you need to score points, and you can't score always just score three points the whole time."
Saracens hammered Worcester at Twickenham last month, during which Brits set up a try after receiving a box kick deep in his own half with defenders bearing down on him.
He stepped past three tacklers before fending off another two and offloaded to Charlie Hodgson, who passed inside to Chris Ashton to cross for the score.
It was a play that Brits points to as a direct result of the work put in at practice, rather than impromptu inspiration on the day.
"Neil de Kock kicks a lot of up-and-unders for me at training. I'm a hooker, so I know I have to work on that because I'm in the backfield every now and then.
"Our kicking coach puts pressure on me to give the effect of different things happening around me which helps with the catching, then I've got the skills coach helping with my stepping and hand-off.
"So I'm just implementing things that I've been practicing every day in training at a high intensity. It then comes a lot easier in a game.
"Everything is just a small part to the bigger gameplan. If you can execute better on the small things your game will be a lot more fluent."
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