South Africa’s director Rassie Erasmus speaks during a press conference at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris as part of the France 2023 Rugby World Cup Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has received rare praise from a former England international. Picture: Julien de Rosa/AFP
While the brains trust, and Rassie Erasmus in particular, are normally given a bad wrap for pushing the boundaries in World Rugby, the Springboks coach has received praise of the highest order from a former England flyhalf.
Stuart Barnes who made 10 appearances for England from 1984 to 1994, writing in his column for The Times described Erasmus as: “Once derided as the game’s global bully, the Springboks have reinvented themselves as the cleverest of rugby thinkers.”
Erasmus made headlines a couple weeks ago when he made 10 changes to the Springboks team to take on hosts Australia in their second Rugby Championship clash.
A full strength Springboks team beat Australia 33-7 in the first Test on August 10, and making wholesale changes for the next match looked like a serious case of overconfidence on Erasmus’ part
The Springboks are even better than last year when they were crowned Rugby World Cup champions, according to centre Jesse Kriel.
— IOL Sport (@IOLsport) August 26, 2024
🎥: Michael Sherman/ @Golfhackno1 / @IOLsport pic.twitter.com/F5dw8MchSm
However, the new-look Springbok team ran out comfortable victors by a similar scoreline of 30-12 a fortnight ago.
The Erasmus strategy is now being more widely regarded as building on the progress of their two successive Rugby World Cup triumphs, and not reduced to any kind of Springbok arrogance.
“Erasmus’s clarity of long-term thinking has played a seminal role in his and his team’s 2019 and 2023 successes,” continued Barnes.
“Despite the defeat at home by Ireland, the reigning world champions have five wins from six games and an undoubted fluency to add to their attacking ambition post-World Cup…
“The combination of style and success enables Erasmus to illustrate the intellect of Springbok rugby, time and again,” he wrote.
At flyhalf, Barnes also insisted that Erasmus stick with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu at flyhalf for the All Blacks clash this weekend at Ellis Park while the temptation would be to rely on the tried-and-tested Handre Pollard.