Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and his assistants say the shifting Six Nations landscape shows how quickly teams are evolving ahead of the 2027 World Cup.
The Bok management have been watching the northern hemisphere tournament closely. While some sides have shown signs of game development and growing depth, England have regressed, with a 12-match winning run followed by defeats to Scotland and Ireland.
Erasmus warned that results can sometimes be misleading without proper context.
“When teams build up good records you must look carefully at who they played,” he said. “It’s a bit like saying a guy is fast because he ran past someone – but you must ask who he ran past. Was it a prop or someone who just started playing rugby?”
The Bok boss said those nuances are important when assessing the global pecking order.
“If you look at some of the results, you must put them in perspective. That doesn’t discredit the teams, but you have to understand where everyone is in their cycle,” Erasmus added.
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Assistant coach Felix Jones believes England are moving in the right direction despite recent defeats. He also pointed to France as a side that has quietly adjusted both tactically and structurally.
“They’ve definitely tweaked parts of their game plan over the past couple of years,” he said.
“What Fabian [Galthié] and his staff have done really well is build depth. They’ve brought through players who weren’t that well known a few seasons ago and now those guys are performing at a very high level in the Six Nations.
“They still have supreme quality players like Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack. But what’s impressive is how they’ve adapted tactically and how they’ve used their squad depth.”
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Both Erasmus and assistant coach Mzwandile Stick highlighted Italy as one of the most improved teams in the northern hemisphere.
“If you look at Italy now, they’re a dangerous side,” Stick said. “They are very physical and they’ve come close in a lot of games. They’ve also had some really good wins.”
Erasmus said: “Italy are a great team, very physical. We always struggle against them.”
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For defence coach Jerry Flannery, the biggest takeaway from this year’s Six Nations has been the growing competitiveness across the board.
“Everyone would probably have said at the outset that it’s between France and England. It just shows how much contest there is in the game now that Italy beat Scotland, Scotland went and turned England over, and Ireland – who weren’t going particularly well – performed against England.
“Because there’s so much contest in the game, it means it’s never predictable, which is what you want from top-level sport,” he added. “It’s probably not what coaches want but it’s been incredibly entertaining and a good advert for the game.”
The Springboks will play all the Six Nations teams this year as part of the new Nations Championship.
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