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The time Rassie Erasmus 'lost the plot' with a Munster player

By Ian Cameron
Rassie Erasmus /Getty

When you think of Rassie Erasmus the head coach, you think of a brilliant orator, a canny man-manager, and an unorthodox leader who isn’t scared to think or act outside of the box.

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The World Cup-winning coach’s speeches to the Springboks prior to glory in Japan in 2019 were a social media hit in rugby circles, and while he may have stepped over the line during the British & Irish Lions test, few would question his rugby acumen.

But there is also a lesser-seen, harder side to the Springboks Director of Rugby, as Keith Earls describes in his recent autobiography – Keith Earls – Fight or Flight.

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Erasmus enjoyed a season in Munster prior to returning to South Africa in 2017 to lead the Springboks. It was a productive year in Limerick, with the men in red making it through to the PRO14 final and the semi-finals of the Heineken Champions Cup.

But there were bumps in the road, including an early-season home loss to Cardiff in September 2016. Following the narrow 24 – 23 loss in Musgrave Park at the hands of the Welsh side, Erasmus let fly at his team in a brutal Monday morning review, and as Earls describes it, ‘put the fear of god’ into players.

Earls paints a picture of a man that is prepared to lay down the law and who demanded respect from his charges.

“This was Rassie’s chance to lay down a marker and he didn’t hold back,” Earls wrote. “At the team review on the Monday he wasn’t happy. He put a series of numbers up on the board.

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“Like, 35, 39, 33 etc. ‘Right, can you tell me what these numbers mean? [asked Erasmus]’

“We hadn’t a clue. So he told us they were the ages of the Cardiff pack. He said that basically, we’d let a bunch of old men kick the s**t out of us.

“A few fellas were given a pass but the rest of them would have to go to him one by one afterwards and explain to him why they’d played so badly.

“One of the players sniggered or smiled and Rassie lost the plot with him altogether.

“He told the player that he could f**k off back to his club for the next few weeks and that if any other outfit wanted to sign him, Rassie would be happy to get rid of him.

“We were all sitting up fairly straight in our chair after that. There wasn’t a murmur out of anyone.

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“He put the fear of God into us that day.”

It was a moment in which Erasmus proved he was the “real deal as a manager, a leader, a boss man”.

 

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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