Rassie Confirms Brown To Stay With Springboks
In a hysterical post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Rassie Erasmus confirmed that Springbok attacking coach Tony Brown will honour his contract amid speculation linking him to the All Blacks.
Brown will honour his Springbok contract, which runs until the completion of the 2027 Rugby World Cup, with Erasmus having recently extended his deal through to 2031.
However, the contracts of Brown and another assistant coach, Mzwandile Stick, are yet to be renewed. It is not clear what stage we are at with regard to that.
As the two-time Rugby World Cup-winning coach Erasmus recently put pen to paper on a contract extension until 2031, it was reported that he wanted all of his assistants to remain in place until then, too, which initially stalled negotiations.
The former All Blacks flyhalf joined the Springboks coaching staff in 2024 and has been pivotal in the fortunes of the Rugby World Cup champions, who have had a highly successful 2025.
In 2025, under the tutelage of Brown, the Springboks transformed into a dominant attacking side, characterised by increased ball-in-hand time and higher offload counts. They finished the year with 13 wins from 15 tests, scoring approximately 626 points and 85 tries, averaging roughly 5.7 tries per game.
Following the sacking of Scott Robertson as All Black coach this past week, the rumour mill went into overdrive as Jamie Joseph was linked to the job, someone Brown has regularly been aligned to – with the pair winning the 2015 Super Rugby title with the Highlanders – before they took their coaching skills to the Japanese national team.
The Boks’ attack guru twice rejected the advances of NZ Rugby, who previously wanted him to join the Ian Foster and Robertson coaching staff.
Brown has consistently expressed his joy and pleasure in working with the Springboks and being a part of the Springboks’ plans to win a third successive Rugby World Cup.
He has, however, not written off the possibility of coaching the All Blacks in the future.
