White’s knight
14 May 2007
Is Rassie Erasmus the man to win the Springboks the World Cup?
This is the question posed in the latest issue of SA Rugby magazine, on sale Wednesday. We speak to players and coaches who know Erasmus best and find out what value he will add to the Bok coaching set-up.
“Rassie will take a load off,” says Nick Mallett. “Jake can definitely trust his attacking and defensive plays.”
“Many coaches can draw tactics and moves on a board, but it must work on the field,” says Ollie le Roux. “Rassie’s in a different class to anyone on the Bok management team — and I include Jake.”
We also get fascinating insights from White, Chester Williems, Kobus van der Merwe, Eugene Eloff and Naka Drotske (and not all of them rave about Rassie).
Also in the new issue of SA Rugby magazine:
Our six Super 14 stars: Fourie du Preez, Brad Barritt, Jaque Fourie, Peter Grant, Juan Smith and ‘Ice’ Toeava.
– Why AJ Venter must go to the World Cup
– Lote Tuqiri’s big pay day and the impact of corporate salary top-ups
– How Brian Ashton’s fixation with youth could spell disaster for England at the World Cup
– Mike Catt on his Test comeback and World Cup ambitions
– Exposing the myth: How New Zealand rugby helps Samoa
– Jonathan Kaplan explains how greater use of technology could help referees
PLUS: Super 14 stats, Vodacom Cup, Baby Boks, Anton leonard’s other life, Rassie on scrumming, World Cup countdown
35 Comments
14 May 2007, 11:55 am
Dragons – Rassie is good but not sure he’s the answer.
Get rid ofSmall & Alastair!
14 May 2007, 11:55 am
After watching the Cheetahs bumble through the S14 I wonder whether Rassie really is such a great coach / tactician [yet?].
Granted he had the weakest squad but they really played some of the crappiest rugby.
14 May 2007, 11:56 am
Rassie’s a good addition, a really class analyst and communicator which will help White out immensely.
14 May 2007, 11:56 am
Rassie’s Cheetahs were true-blue undercoached rubbish in the S14.
14 May 2007, 11:59 am
GO BOKS !!!
Kiwi’s are in for another World Cup Choker !!!
14 May 2007, 11:59 am
Rassie’s Cheetahs were true-blue undercoached rubbish in the S14. He talked the talk but couldn’t walk the walk.
14 May 2007, 12:04 pm
Rassie gaan jake se gat red met die insluiting v Luke!
14 May 2007, 12:04 pm
Oh no, the Twatler is back.
What happened to his choking Saders ???
The got Bull rushed
14 May 2007, 12:09 pm
Rassie will not win us the World Cup. He will, however, make a positive contribution and that contribution will be one of the reasons we win, if we do.
I look forward to his collaboration with Victor Matfield in the technical aspects of our lineout.
14 May 2007, 12:19 pm
Get **** Muir and John Plumtree in there too, and Heyneke’s input too…
14 May 2007, 12:29 pm
It is JAKE WHITE, with various assistants who will bring home the cup.
14 May 2007, 12:32 pm
The Cheetahs had the worst injury run and the least amount of depth. People criticise Rassie here but think loffie is something sent from heaven. Come down from cloud cookoo land please!
It is going to take something from the EC to put SA rugby right, but having Jake and rassie together is dangeorus. Both are analysts and any statistic is how you interpret it. Is it a penalty against the player holding on or a turnover for the defender?
14 May 2007, 12:37 pm
The cover looks cool…again! If you keep this up I may start buying the bloody thing!
Well, that and ban Tackles for life!
14 May 2007, 12:59 pm
Tackler, as a player, then as player/coach, and finally as coach Rassie has been very highly rated as having one of the best rugby brains around. How does a coach take a bunch of rejects from other provinces and turn them into cup winners if he is not a good coach. Even a respected coach like Eddie Moans could do nothing with his rubble reds this year, and he probably had more to work with than Rassie.
14 May 2007, 13:02 pm
Would be interesting to see how things work out with Rassie there. He is a Luke fan but during 99 WCup was not in favour of teammate Bobby. That lead to issues in the squad. How will he treat Bobby now?aussieboerdotkom
14 May 2007, 13:37 pm
Rassie has been quite flattering about the “new, improved” Bobby in post-match discussions. A bit less flash, lots of experience, he’s in great physical shape, injury free and has become a deadly tackler and hard grafter.
14 May 2007, 14:53 pm
Gents…go to the 702 website, check out the interview with John Robbie and Oregan Hoskins(go to >home page>my 702> podcast’s)………..I cant believe a muppit like this is running SA rugby.
14 May 2007, 16:49 pm
if i were JW i’d quit.
gawd SARU undermines his squad selection by including LW.
then they give him a babysitter in Rassie
what next…?
i think they may still oust JW before the WC and then also boot JS and make Luke Captain…. that’s why Oregan said .. ‘let’s talk in 3 months’ WATCH THIS SPACE [ ]
14 May 2007, 17:26 pm
Rassie Erasmus just has some rough edges right now. He made the mistake of getting the players over-confident in the beginning of the season, and that resulted in them losing all of their confidence later on.
Rassie has shown at times during the Super 14 that he is in fact the best SA coach when it comes to designing backline moves, and when it comes to getting quick ball.
His main problem has been that he hasn’t gotten his players to understand the general principles of attacking rugby. Because his players don’t have a general understanding on how to attack, they only sometimes get the execution of his moves right. When they do get it right, though, it’s spectacular.
So he still has some rough edges, and sometimes there’s a fine line between having a successful season and having a failed season. The fact is, Rassie got his team to play some outsanding rugby during the Currie Cup, but the Super 14 he put on the field wasn’t quite the complete article.
Right now it is best for Erasmus to be an assitant coach. Jake decided to bring him into the coaching staff, and he also decided to have Erasmus be responsible for ball retention. The Boks are awful in this area, and having Erasmus in charge of ball retention is better than having White in charge of ball retention.
We are going to see a transformed Springbok team.
14 May 2007, 18:00 pm
Zhak I wonder if there are any statistics or any info available to show if the Cheetahs ball retention is significantly better tan any of the other franchises? If it is then Rassie should be tasked with that. If it isn’t then it is a bit like asking Eddie Andrews and Brok Harris to be the scrumming coaches.
What should be happening is that SARU should appoint Louden or Campese as the backline / skills coach and Heynke or Plumtree as the forwards coach. Just by watching the teams play you can see that they are being expertly coached.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that Rassie will not do well. Just that some info as to his expertise or results are needed.
14 May 2007, 18:32 pm
Statistics wouldn’t show it Loosehead, because how much you retain possession depends on strategy. Look at the Crusaders this weekend. Their ball retention wasn’t great because they kept trying to attack out wide (similar to the Cheetahs’ misguided strategy). You can’t just look at statistics because it’s a lot more complicated than that.
However, go back to the first few games of the season. The speed and confidence with which the Cheetahs recycled the ball was unprecedented for a South African team. There is no other SA coach as good at teaching ball retention as Rassie Erasmus is, and that really should be plain to see.
The problem with the coaches and the players is that they didn’t realise what they were getting themselves into. Sometimes when you retain possession a lot, and keep holding onto the ball, it actually takes longer to score. You can score more easily just by kicking up and unders all day.
Still, when you keep the ball in hand, it takes longer for other teams to score as well. The Brumbies games, for instance, have been low scoring because the Brumbies have been a possession oriented team. In soccer it’s like the contrast betweeen playing possession soccer and long ball. It’s also explains why some of the matches between Australia and NZ have been so low scoring over they years (because each team just keeps hogging the ball).
The Cheetahs weren’t quite prepared for the implications of playing possession rugby, especially when they had so many injuries in the beginning of the season. But one thing is for sure, Erasmus is the only coach in SA that can actually get his team to play this kind of rugby.
So he’s definitely the best person to use to improve this aspect of the Boks’ game (which is quite terrible at the moment).
14 May 2007, 18:44 pm
Also, it doesn’t matter how good your backline coach is, sometimes your backline simply won’t have the opportunities if you don’t go through the phases first.
Look at a player like Pierre Spies for instance (not a back, but close enough) he is always awesome when the Bulls or the Boks have been going through the phases and disorganised defences a bit. However, he is largely invisible in a game where his team doesn’t go through phases.
This applies to the whole Springbok team, though. De Villiers, Fourie, Van Niekerk, etc., have always been good once the team started getting some continuity. It’s always exciting to watch the Springboks, with so many gamebreakers, when they actually get some rhythm. Unfortunately, that almost never happens because Jake White is so pathetic when it comes to teaching ball retention.
For Rassie, on the other hand, he didn’t have all the game breakers to take advantage of this style of rugby. He could have brought in Hendrik Meyer and Giscard Pieters, but alas, he didn’t.
But once Rassie brings that kind of continuity to the Springbok team, you will see a huge difference.
14 May 2007, 18:49 pm
You make some good points.
14 May 2007, 19:08 pm
#2 After watching the Cheetahs bumble through the S14 I wonder whether Rassie really is such a great coach / tactician
My thoughts exactly.
14 May 2007, 19:26 pm
They didn’t bumble through the whole competition. The team lost confidence in the end, which is why they were so poor on tour. They lost confidence because they were too over-confident at the beginning of the season. Still, many people were rating the Cheetahs highly when they beat the Brumbies before going on tour.
Just because Rassie isn’t the complete article yet, it doesn’t mean you can just write off his abilities. He is not working with the talent that the Sharks and the Bulls have at their disposal, and he is still a young coach.
How many young coaches have you seen take over in their firs year, and then win the Currie Cup with a team that had only managed to win it once before in their history? He then went and almost did it again the next year, with his team playing even more impressive rugby.
Just because he’s still rough around the edges, you can’t ignore those achievements. Remember how Heyneke Meyer did in his first years as a Super 14 coach?
I would agree that Rassie may not be the best head coach at the moment, and he would ideally be an assistant coach. However, when you look at the speed of the Cheetahs ball retention in the beginning of the year, he’s definitely not a coach you can simply right off. By the way, did you watch the Currie Cup semi-final last year, when the same Sharks team were completely run off their feet?
14 May 2007, 20:18 pm
Are s14 stars selected on what,only barrit and toeava had briliant season,must be a relative thing.
14 May 2007, 20:19 pm
18
that can be a brilliant idea.
14 May 2007, 21:43 pm
This looks like an awesome issue. I literally can’t wait.
15 May 2007, 04:57 am
yes, the Cheetahs were rubbish, Tackler.. Just like the Canes and Highlanders.
15 May 2007, 10:59 am
NO!
- See the Super14 log for confirmation!
Rassie WAS excellent in the Currie Cup but thats as far as it goes. He can add nothing that jake doesn’t already know. Infact he might do more damage that good!
15 May 2007, 11:28 am
Well seeing as **** Muir and Heyneke Mayer have created two monster teams, i wonder if Muir and Meyer should be on board as well
15 May 2007, 11:31 am
Or even John Plumtree and Campo. They are the bakcline coaches for the bulls and sharks respectively.
16 May 2007, 01:38 am
can’t we get a topless pic of rassie on the cover as well?
24 May 2007, 09:48 am
Rassie can start by having Willemse replaced by Phillip Flickflack .
11 Jun 2007, 23:09 pm
Talking about coaches?? The best coaches are the ones that stays away from any involvement with the Springboks. If you want to be a clown….join the circus…
So hopefully Heyneke Meyer stays away from the Springboks as FAR as possible….
Dr. Danie Craven said: ‘n Vis vrot van sy kop af…
So for as long as the government is involved in sport you can forget about winning any prestigious title, the only losers in this battle is going to be the sport itself, I guess everybody forgot about the cricket world cup already….
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.