Wellington performance against All Blacks was not good enough, says Springboks' attack coach Tony Brown

When Tony Brown was playing for the Sharks in 2006, he famously said he loved having “a pack of angry Afrikaners in front of him rather than attacking him.”

Now, as Springbok attack coach, he is enjoying the ball his backline is receiving from that same pack. Brown, a former All Black and Highlanders flyhalf, saw the fruits of his labours in Wellington last week when the Boks overran his former team. But while rugby folk are raving about the 43-10 victory, Brown is not one of them.

The Kiwi says the Boks must be even better to give themselves the best chance of winning the Rugby Championship by beating the Pumas twice over the next fortnight, starting in Durban on Saturday.

“It was a good performance last week against the All Blacks, but Argentina are a different team playing pretty good rugby,” he said.

“They have beaten the All Blacks, they have beaten Australia, so the message to our guys is that if we don’t prepare as well as we can, and pitch up and be as physical and dominant as possible, we are going to be put under pressure.

“So getting our game right is a massive focus for us this week because I don’t think we were good in last week’s first half. We did not execute well in the first half in Wellington.

"We have shown patches of good rugby this year, but I don’t think we have put 80 minutes together. My goal is to get us to perform for 80 minutes, execute all the opportunities we are producing, and try to really put teams away.”

Even though last Saturday was impressive against the All Blacks, Brown emphasised that the first half was “riddled with errors.”

“We have to be better than Wellington this week in Durban,” Brown continued.

“(Pumas coach) Filipe Contepomi has done an amazing job in carrying on from what (former coach) Michael Cheika started. He has got them playing with Argie flair, and they are fully committed to performing for Argentina. That is a good combination — they are playing some great rugby and will be hard to beat.”

The four Rugby Championship teams are separated only by bonus points on the tightest log there has been since the tournament’s inception, but Brown says the Boks will not be chasing bonus points at Kings Park.

“A bonus point will be good, but we are focusing on how we can beat Argentina,” he said.

“We have to perform very well to get the result. If things go exceptionally well, we might sneak a bonus point, but our focus is just on getting across the line by playing very well.”

Brown says the aerial contest has become more important than ever following the rule change that no longer allows players to form an “escorting” pocket to protect the receiver.

“The aerial contest has become a massive part of the game all around the world because you can’t escort,” he said.

“The one-on-one contest in the air is becoming really dynamic. The guys who can do it the best are creating opportunities for the attacking side. Argentina are very good in this respect, and we are expecting a massive battle there.

“When it is a 50-50 situation, teams are always thinking they are going to win it, so when they lose it, it is very hard to organise their defence quickly. Being able to attack in those situations is what makes the aerial contest so vital now,” Brown concluded.