Tony Brown reveals how he is helping to revolutionize Springboks' attack

The former All Blacks flyhalf joined Rassie Erasmus' backroom staff at the start of the year and has been tasked with taking the Boks' attack to new heights.

Brown has had immense success in previous roles with Otago, the Highlanders and Japan, helping the latter reach the Rugby World Cup knockouts for the first time in 2019.

His influence on the Boks' attack has been clear to see following the side's first six Test matches of the year and Brown has revealed how he has got the back-to-back world champions to buy into and execute his plans with confidence.

Brown started his coaching career in Japan working as a player-coach with the Wild Knights and while he did represent the All Blacks, he always thought of himself as a better coach than a player.

"I was not overly talented but I understood the game really well and I tried to find different ways to play the game and I always knew that I'd be a better coach than I was a player," he said on the Behind the Ruck podcast.

"I thought if I could get some players with a bit more talent than me and get them to understand the game and play the game a certain way, I thought I'd be a better coach."

The former flyhalf has certainly made his mark in the coaching arena and is widely respected for his work on attack and is viewed as a trendsetter in his expertise.

However, the defensive side of the game in international rugby continues to dominate, so how does Brown adjust to the trends and get the Springboks players to back his plans?

"The game is moving so fast and in the last five or six years the defensive side of the game's become so good," he explained.

"There has been a lot of coaches influencing that from rugby league around the line speed and how to tackle and shut down the ball and dominate attacks.

"Defence has become a massive part of the game and there are so many really well-coached teams now, everyone specialises in defence, so it's tough to create an attack that's going to beat a really good defensive side, but that's the challenge.

"I always like to try and innovate and do different things to try and manipulate the defence versus letting them shut me down but it's a challenge.

"Then the key part about being innovative and changing the game is trying to find little things, but you do need your players to first understand why you're doing it, then they need to be able to execute it.

"So they need the skillset and not so much just the skillset but they need the belief that they're going to be able to execute in that moment."

To achieve this, Brown aims to create situations in training where the players will face tougher challenges in executing their skills than they would in a game.

"I always try to innovate and give the players some really exciting things to do so then they actually get inspired to give it a go," he added.

"You create a bit of a mindset around that if we get this right and execute then our game's going to go to another level and no one is going to be able to stop us.

"For me the best part about rugby is trying to find ways to do it differently and try to inspire the players and give the players, not a free reign, but giving the players the belief and the opportunity to be great."

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