Springbok defence coach credits Jacques Nienaber for helping create blueprint for success

The Springboks will look to become the first country in history to win three Rugby World Cups in a row at the tournament in Australia next year.

Before that, they have a bumper fixtures list in the upcoming international season, which includes Nations Championship games against the likes of England, France and Ireland, as well as the Greatest Rivalry tour against New Zealand.

Much of South Africa's success in recent years has been built on the rock-solid defensive platform that was developed when Nienaber was head coach and it is still a key pillar of their gameplan.

"I think the biggest one is that, if you speak real plainly, Jacques has laid a massive foundation for the two World Cup wins with the work that he did around the defence," Flannery said.

"He was embracing the stuff that South Africans do better than anyone else, which is being so physical, being so fit as well. And I think that that's given a great framework."

However, the Springboks have also become a dangerous attacking team and Flannery says that kind of evolution is crucial if they want to stay on top of the World Rankings.

"I don't think you can ever say you can consolidate and sit on something and say it's OK because as we've seen, the game is constantly evolving and you've got to be on it every single week looking to see where there's a small gain that you can make," he added.

"The evolution of Springbok rugby is how we combine our defence, attack, kicking game and set-piece, and try to put teams under massive pressure to obviously score points and win Test matches.

"We always go, this is how we control the game, this is how we use our kicking game. This is how we use our defence to crack turnovers. And then we build our attack off those two things.

"So I feel as though we're in a powerful position to push that forward over the next 12 months." 

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