Steve Hansen is backing Dave Rennie to find the All Blacks' own path rather than reverse-engineering Erasmus's blueprint. Speaking on the DSPN podcast, Hansen argued that what works in South Africa — culturally, physically, tactically — doesn't automatically translate to New Zealand, drawing on lessons from his own coaching stints in Wales and Japan. His view is that good coaches are selective: you identify what suits your squad and your culture, you pinch those ideas, and you leave the rest.
The broader implication is that the All Blacks have real assets to build around — particularly a forward pack Hansen describes as capable of both the hard set-piece work and genuine open play — and that Rennie's job is to unlock that specific talent pool rather than imitate a system built around different people. It's a measured rebuttal to the growing narrative in world rugby that Erasmus's model is universally replicable, and it raises an interesting question: what does a distinctly New Zealand response to Springbok dominance actually look like?