'World Cups have never been won by eight tries' Rassie Erasmus' Springboks vision
Rassie Erasmus’s first press conference of 2019 delivered plenty of soundbites, as the South African coach covered everything from the national style of play, losing the financial war against European clubs, to who will coach the Springboks next.
As part of a radical new contracting strategy announced recently, ‘dozens’ of home-based players will be taken into Springbok succession planning next year. The systemic overhaul is a result of South Africa’s inability to keep up with overseas offers with the weakening exchange rate.
“We are struggling with a massive exchange rate and clubs on the other side who don’t always have a business model, has a rich owner with a lot of money.
“He can spend that money, whether the player is worth it or. If we compete with that all the time, we will exhaust our budget. For us, succession planning on this side would be impossible.”
“We just can’t bat in that area anymore,” the Bok coach said, adding: “Those guys just have too much money. We have decided to spread our money through more players.”
Going hand-in-hand with the policy is the intention to formally scrap the 30-cap rule for overseas-based players, something that Erasmus already had exercised in practice with the use of overseas talent like Faf de Klerk, Willie le Roux and Cheslin Kolbe in 2018. Instead of fighting against the current, Erasmus is prepared to swim with it in order to return the national side to glory.
In explaining the extreme overhaul, he made it clear that it is because succession planning is something that has been lacking in South Africa.
“You are not sure how many players you will lose at the end of this year.
“We have to sort out this wider succession plan first before we give more attention to that,” he said.
Rassie’s wide-ranging review extends past player retention issues and into the search for his replacement as head coach after he moves into the Director of Rugby role, the one he initially signed up for when he signed his six-year contract.
“Then it’s about making succession plans for coaches, and I include black coaches, because this has been a big issue. With the pool of pro players getting smaller, the pool of pro coaches will get smaller too. Once we get the succession planning of the players right, we will move on to that.
When it comes to just who will be sitting in the coaches box in 12 months time, Erasmus already has an idea of who he would like to step in.
“I’ve begun the process in my own head,’ he said. ‘There are a few names being bounced around. I would be stupid to say who those names are right now, though.
The long-term view will hopefully have South African rugby firing by 2023, but that isn’t to say this year’s World Cup is just a stepping stone. Erasmus will be going to Japan to win, having re-shaped the way the Springboks play tests to a more traditional game which he says he is noticing now at Super Rugby level.
“World Cups have never been won by eight tries,” he said.
“It’s always been high-pressure games and the end of the game it’s a penalty here or a drop goal there.
“If you don’t start accepting that mindset, and how important are penalties, discipline, kicking game, defence — and by all means attack — but if all of a sudden you want to instill that at Test match level it’s too late. The players understand that.
“This game isn’t all about X-factor, all about a brilliant moment; it’s almost like the [South African Super Rugby] teams are trying tactically to squeeze results out of each other, and to be honest I’m enjoying that.”
The Bulls 40-3 victory over the Stormers springs to mind as one example. Erasmus believes the message is filtering down from players involved with the team in 2018.
“A lot of players were in the Springboks mix last season, and they’ve gone back to their franchises; what we’re trying to do at Springboks level does get filtered down through those players. Those players know what they must be able to do when they get to us.
“We do see a lot of stuff with the franchise coaches but they all have their own flavour, especially when it comes to the tactical game, and we don’t want to take that away.
“But there’s certainly some stuff flowing through from the national side, and vice versa.”
Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to comments