Behind the scenes
17 Dec 2010
GAVIN RICH, writing in SA Rugby magazine says that while Rassie Erasmus did good work with the WP juniors this year, the senior side could have used his help too.
When Western Province were preparing to run on to the Kings Park field to play their Currie Cup final against the Sharks, Rassie Erasmus was up in the press box enquiring whether there was a comfortable suite from where he could watch the game.
Erasmus had been busy with the WP U21 team, who completed a notable clean sweep against the Blue Bulls by winning their third game of the season against those opponents in their final.
He was also closely involved with the WP U19 side, a special young team if ever there was one, through the work he puts in at the WP Rugby Institute in Stellenbosch, which makes up virtually the entire U19 team player complement.
But until the knockout phases of the Currie Cup arrived, those in the know had the understanding that Erasmus, though not as prominent at WP senior practices as he had been during the Super 14 season, still had a role to play in helping out with match-day tactics over the radio.
Erasmus clearly wasn’t playing that role in the final, and it was learnt that he hadn’t in the semi-final either. So when WP found themselves all at sea against the brutally efficient Sharks in the main event on finals day, it was natural to wonder why the best tactical rugby brain in the country, if not the world, was not being utilised for his main strength.
Erasmus has won two Currie Cup titles with the Free State Cheetahs, and there wasn’t anyone else in the WP management who boasted Currie Cup-winning experience (Robbie Fleck as a player, but not as a coach).
When the question was asked, though, in a throwaway line in the Weekend Argus match report, all hell broke loose. A Cape Town Afrikaans tabloid tried to pick up on the story, and it set in motion a quite startling behind-the-scenes witch-hunt for the person who had ‘leaked’ the story.
Not that there needed to be a leak – Erasmus was sitting in the press box before the Currie Cup final for goodness sake, so give the journos some credit for being able to sometimes suss things out for themselves. And when WP were playing such dumb rugby in the second half of the final, you didn’t require a degree in rugby rocket science to be able to figure out that maybe Erasmus’s brain was needed.
Erasmus acknowledged as much afterwards, and the good news for Stormers fans is that he will again be playing a more prominent role in next year’s Super Rugby tournament. That is not to say head coach Allister Coetzee lacks anything in ability, for he is a fine coach in his own right, but Erasmus is the genius responsible for the way the Stormers/WP have emerged as real challengers to the Bulls’ longstanding South African rugby hegemony.
If you look back at the respective seasons of the Stormers and WP and go through them with a fine-tooth comb, it’s easy to arrive at the assumption that while the Province coaches, who were empowered by Erasmus, have grown immeasurably, there was something the Stormers had that WP lacked.
And it went beyond the missing Springboks, or the physical edge that seemed to be less pronounced in the WP defensive game than it was in the Stormers’ in the Super 14. Simply put, the Stormers just appeared cleverer.
You should expect that if you consider that the Stormers had the benefit of a core of experienced Boks, which WP didn’t, but it appeared to go deeper than that.
More than anything else, what the fuss over the radio story – it did get embellished a bit after that, with Die Son going as far as to suggest there had been a change room ban on Erasmus – did was bring into focus a subject that had been simmering in the background throughout the 2010 season. Would Erasmus become jealous of Coetzee’s success? Would Coetzee react badly if not given full credit for being his own man and would he become irritated with having Erasmus above him in the pecking order?
The first question can almost certainly be answered in the negative. When Erasmus was approached for interviews or engaged in conversation during the season, he was always very quick to deflect the question. He says what he gets a kick out of is not the acclaim that goes with being a successful coach, but rather the intellectual energy that goes into the business of strategising.
You can almost hear people saying, ‘Ja, what a load of rubbish’ when they read that, but in Erasmus’s case it does appear to be true. One of those close to him has offered an acceptable explanation for Erasmus’s apparent lack of ego – he achieved a high level of success as a player, and as such, he may not require the recognition and public adulation that other lesser achievers might.
With Coetzee there was no public flashpoint before what became known as ‘the radio story’ hit the media to suggest he was uncomfortable with Erasmus’s role, but there were simmering rumours in the past two months of the season.
Some would say it’s human nature, but for those who don’t want to believe there might have been some tension, the passionate way Coetzee tried to deny he needed Erasmus’s brain should not have sat completely comfortably.
What is important to stress, at this point, is that there has never been any secret about the differing roles that the two personalities play within the Stormers/WP set-up. When Erasmus announced he was stepping aside from the head coaching role to enable Coetzee to take the reins, he was quite clear that issues relating to strategy were still his call. He said so at a press conference and a couple of times subsequently in interviews.
Erasmus, in looking back at the Super 14 earlier in the year, made the point that he didn’t believe the Stormers would have done as well in the competition had he remained as coach. He admitted to his weaknesses, particularly his discomfort when it came to dealing with the media and the flightiness that undermines his abilities as a man manager.
His main strength is strategy and the implementation of systems – and in this sense the results speak for themselves, with Province making every major final this year. The success of his much spoken-of succession planning programme shone through in the way the age-group teams dominated their competitions.
If there are tensions brewing between himself and the other coaches housed at the High Performance Centre in Bellville, Erasmus is either blissfully unaware of it, or he is determined to keep the peace for the sake of the equilibrium needed for Province to continue their current upward performance trajectory.
For him, the main thing is for ‘Allister and myself to continue to get into each other’s heads so that we reach a point where I don’t have to interfere at all. When that happens I will feel my job is done.’
Erasmus admits there were times in the last weeks of the Currie Cup when he felt the WP senior management was making mistakes and he had been tempted to interfere.
‘There have been mistakes, from them and from me. In the last four weeks of the Currie Cup there were times when things went against my sixth sense. I could have changed a few things, but I decided against it. Maybe that was a mistake on my part.
‘But when the Super 14 season came to an end and I started to look ahead to what needed to be done to get WP rugby working in the direction I wanted it to go, I had to make a choice. [Former Vodacom Cup and WP U21 coach] Jerome Paarwater was redeployed to look after club rugby, and it was clear the U21s needed some guidance.
‘I resolved that I would get involved with them, that it would benefit me to work closely with the players who are in line to be the next wave of WP and Stormers players. It made sense to get to know them, and to let them get to know me.
‘I had to make a choice. I couldn’t be half in and half out. That wouldn’t have benefited anyone. So while I did continue to advise the senior team coaches in the Currie Cup, I couldn’t be as involved as I’d been in the Super 14.’
Erasmus is adamant that he made the right decision, and he points to the recruitments made for next year as vindication.
‘We have only made one signing from outside the province for next year, and that is CJ van der Linde. I have got to know the young talent coming through, I have worked with all of them, and I can confidently say that we don’t need to recruit so much from outside. There is enough talent here; players like Danie Poolman, Nick Koster and JJ Engelbrecht all have big careers ahead of them and are ready to take the step up.
‘Losing the Super 14 and Currie Cup finals was a setback for morale. I would be lying if I denied that. But we have now started to make semi-finals and finals, and that has shown everyone the benefits of the system we have in place, whereby I meet with all the coaches on a Sunday night and we plan the week together.
‘Everybody [all the management] is involved in that, everyone has input and a say in how things will be done. It’s my job to satisfy the commercial side of things while also having the best players within a certain budget who can win trophies for us. On the commercial side it was a big setback not to get home finals these two seasons as we lost out on R24 million. We could do with that money.
‘We have the players, we have the coaches, maybe what we don’t have at the moment – and this came up in our wash-up session at the end of the season – is a squad with the staying power to last 17 or 18 weeks. We lost crucial league games in the Super 14 and Currie Cup that cost us home advantage in the finals.
‘I’m satisfied, though, that we have now developed the depth, with the young players coming through, that will ensure that we don’t need to keep overplaying guys like Duane Vermeulen and Brok Harris. That will help us ensure that we can continue winning through rounds nine, 10, 11 and 12 and then be ready to step up again in a final.’
– This article first appeared in the December issue of SA Rugby magazine.
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55 Comments
17 Dec 2010, 06:12 am
What a boring drag…on story.
17 Dec 2010, 06:13 am
Dragon lurking behind the scenes
17 Dec 2010, 06:28 am
stormers/ wp are an enigma. Can win in New Zeeland….but in Durban,Loftus, Ellis Park they seem to get the yips.
CJ is a great signing,Brock definitley overplayed.Koster may have to step up so Duane Vermeulen can get some rest….
A Bekker and W Blaauw remain crucial, lets hope they both recovered from those injuries.
And the rumopurs of the lions circling around D Vermeulen and A bBekker not going away…..if they were to leave stormers would be in the dwang!
17 Dec 2010, 07:32 am
oh what a doos this Gavin Rich is?
17 Dec 2010, 08:37 am
Ah. What a lot of passion went into this story. As usual the KEO-gang/SA Rugby mag writers shows how completely biased they are towards WP/Stormers. I don’t know why the mag isn’t simply renamed to Stormers Magazine, since the journo’s have no taste whatsoever for the rest of the unions.
Yeah, articles appear about the other unions, but they’re usually boring, non-insightful and rushed.
17 Dec 2010, 09:04 am
So…to sum this all up…
Rassie is a better coach.
Allister is very insecure and wants to be seen as doing it all by himself.
so Rassie gives him the “space”…
WP go to sleep tactically in the CC final.
So Rassie remains the better coach.
Allister is now even more insecure.
Bulls and Sharks continue to shny the WP.
the end.
17 Dec 2010, 09:06 am
Corporaal
A fairytale
17 Dec 2010, 09:29 am
@Transformation : Such a doos, his agenda is so blatantly obvious to see.
17 Dec 2010, 09:31 am
i don’t get this, apparently rassie was doing all the coaching in the s14 and WP got moered by the bulls @ Orlando, and now we’re told rassie wasn’t involved in the currie cup campaign and WP got thumped by the sharks…same conclusion to both campaigns yet rassie is the better coach and allister,fleckie & proudfoot are the kak “empowered” lot?
17 Dec 2010, 09:38 am
@Bagel : so this apparently “passionate” article is based on nothing BUT this type of conjencture:
“But until the knockout phases of the Currie Cup arrived, those in the know had the understanding that Erasmus, though not as
prominent at WP senior practices
as he had been during the Super
14 season, still had a role”
17 Dec 2010, 09:44 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl : If you believe Gavin ‘Inside Source’ Rich.
17 Dec 2010, 09:50 am
@Bagel :
…it’s a great setup by the journo though isn’t it?
whatever happens now, nobody believes the coaches.
eg: Allister….nooit, I promise i am secure in my role and have the relevent intellect required.
Rassie: I promise you Allister is a very good coach.
…protesting too much?
17 Dec 2010, 09:57 am
@Transformation : Just like the time he said his inside source told him the senior players coach the team and then for Victor and John to promptly laugh it off the next day. The dude is a liar, racist and moron. I remember Januarie getting Man of the Match overseas and Rich giving him a 5 out of 10.
17 Dec 2010, 10:31 am
Piece of rubbish article. Long winded. Ungrounded. Stop stirring **** in the Stormers/WP camp.
17 Dec 2010, 11:48 am
Gavin Rich’s stuff is usually quality , but also don’t get the point of this piece. It makes me think of the Bulls and how you can make a story up there with , its Heyneke Meyer’s team that he created and Ludeke inherited , and now you still have Heyneke behind the scenes ,so of how much is Ludeke really worth to the Bulls…..bla bla bla
All of us know Rassie is the main brain in the Province Camp , he’s the director of coaching. We made the final of both competitions in 2010 ,as sh*te as the two finals were, its a step up from the previous 2 years. No need to now sit and wonder What If bla bla with why was’t Rassie more involved. What’s done is done.
17 Dec 2010, 11:49 am
@grant10 : Bok captain is ‘good to go’
2010-12-16 23:02:57
Springbok captain John Smit has been given the all clear to return to the playing field and has already been training for a month.
The 102-Tests veteran front row forward, who has captained South Africa a record 76 times, is expected to be a central figure in the Boks’ defence of the World Cup in New Zealand next year.
Smith, who underwent a successful operation to repair a chronic cervical disc in Durban on September 22, missed the Sharks’s victorious Currie Cup campaign and the Boks’ year-end tour to Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The 32-year-old Bok skipper confirmed that he was given the all clear this week to start playing again.
“I have passed the three-month mark, which is the time they expected it should take before I could play rugby, and that was on Wednesday,” he said, adding: “I went to go see the specialist that did the surgery and doctor Stefan Joubert said it is ‘thumbs up’.”
Smit added that he has been training “flat-out” for just over a month now.
“It is flat-out now, the pre-season is pretty hard as everyone knows – November, December and January are the hard months.”
He added that it is good to finally have a pre-season where he feels good.
Smit admitted it will take careful management of all the Bok resources by all the franchises when the expanded Super 15 kicks off next year.
The revamped 15-team format – which starts on February 18 and finishes on July 9, an increase from 16 to 24 weeks – will see the number of games increase from 94 to 125.
“Every year, everyone says the same: ‘There’s a lot of rugby this year, how are you going to manage it?’,” Smit said.
“It is going to be up to coaches to have contracted well and select well.
“One thing is for sure, no single player is going to be able to play 80 minutes every single game every single weekend in the Super 15 and hen played 80 minutes, seven games in a row, in the World Cup as well.
“There will certainly be a time and a place for rotation and I think what will help is that it will create a bit of competitiveness among the positions as well.”
Smit, the most-capped captain in the history of Test rugby, memorably led his side to the sport’s biggest prize at the 2007 World Cup in France.
He played in his 100th Test against the All Blacks in Soweto earlier this year and his record of 102 Tests – which he shares with Percy Montgomery – was overtaken by stand-on captain Victor Matfield during the 29-25 win over Wales in Cardiff last month.
Matfield, who inherited the Springbok captaincy from the injured Smit, now holds the Bok record at 104 Tests.
17 Dec 2010, 11:51 am
Interesting that these ego clashes between the Director of coaching and the head coach don’t seem to exist between Heyneke and Frans Ludeke.
Might explain the difference in trophy numbers between the two unions.
The difference is, both Rassie and Allistair are out to make names for themselves. Frans and Heyneke, on the other hand, don’t have personal agendas and are humble enough to put the team first.
17 Dec 2010, 11:56 am
I think Smit will captain the midweek side at the world cup, and be on the bench for the main games.
17 Dec 2010, 12:02 pm
@Tacitus :
You can talk a lot of **** hey, hows 2008 Super 14?
Where did Ludeke without Heyneke get you that year ? Did you guys even finish in the Top half of the Super 14 log? nooooo sonny ,nooooo.
The Ego clashes is just assumptions , where is the proof??
17 Dec 2010, 12:29 pm
@Transformation : Well good luck to Smit….
He has his work cut out….that Bok front row ‘ cooked ‘ on the EOYT….
If he cannot strengthen it….i hope he has the balls to do what any man of honour would do.
Its about the team….not the individual .
17 Dec 2010, 12:32 pm
@wp_boytjie :
calm down china.
go and dust your empty trophy cabinet
17 Dec 2010, 12:33 pm
@Tacitus : What the f**k do you base that on? Your agenda is even more blatant than Rich’s although a different one.
Moron.
17 Dec 2010, 12:36 pm
@gunther : They don’t have the cabinet anymore. I saw it on Gumtree a while back and thought it might make a decent liquor rack. But when I phoned I was told that a Mr Gumede had just snapped it up. Apparently he also asked if they knew where he could have it enlarged.
17 Dec 2010, 12:39 pm
@>^..^< katman : classic !
17 Dec 2010, 12:47 pm
@>^..^< katman :
a decent liquor cabinet?
I always thought it would be bigger somehow.
like durban.
17 Dec 2010, 12:52 pm
@gunther : Only one of each on the shelf. I stock all the refills in the garage.
17 Dec 2010, 12:59 pm
@>^..^< katman :
good man.
17 Dec 2010, 14:08 pm
Rassie is for all intent a very good strategist. But its one thing to plan a good game on paper and quite another to implement one. My “inside sauces” tells me Rassie is neither trusted or respected much as a hands on coach. Having personally experienced both in interviews, I will take Allister any day of the week as a WP supporter.
17 Dec 2010, 15:00 pm
@PissAnt : Surely you don’t disagree with the Great Gavin Rich?
17 Dec 2010, 15:07 pm
@Bagel : 29 tell him Bagel, GR is SAB 2010 Journalist of the Year, when you see him in the stree, SHOW some respect!
17 Dec 2010, 15:12 pm
Afraid I have to
17 Dec 2010, 15:14 pm
I wonder if Gavin was wearing Rassies’ stripped underpants on his head when writing this article, or had them on under his pyjamas?
17 Dec 2010, 15:20 pm
rugby and ego go hand in glove like chocolate and mousse or strawberries and cream, big fat ego’s on the line getting hung out to dry.
So much arrogance at stake all trying to prove a point. Rassie the big snorter from flowerfountain and Alister is Mr. Humility himself because Jake said so. A sure fired recipe for a conflict of interest if ever there was one, and both vying for Bok coach job post 2011..
17 Dec 2010, 15:46 pm
uk times say Butch on way to Lions; Bath are resigned to losing him end of season
17 Dec 2010, 15:46 pm
Michael Claasens may leave too
17 Dec 2010, 15:52 pm
@skopiskoobidoo : Believe me, I hate to be pedantic about such things, but since it’s you I will. Chocolate and mousse don’t go together like, for instance, strawberries and cream. It’s one thing, called chocolate mousse. Can’t split it up. Absolutely no “hand in glove” there. Try another one or, failing that, stick to one example.
17 Dec 2010, 15:54 pm
@jb : I hope he’s not also eying Papa Gumede’s chequebook. Because we’re all scrumhalved out right now.
17 Dec 2010, 15:54 pm
Well after having a great 300gr rump at Sharks Lover’s fine restaurant I must bid most of you a good rest of 2010, a safe festive season, and i’ll see you all back here ready and fighting for the 2011 season!
Cheers all of you whose posts have brightened up my blogging life, and to the rest, particularly Skopskiet a merry Christmas and don’t forget to strain the meths properly before inbibing!
I’m off to work on my beach ogling and sandcastle building skills.
Laters
Stormersboy out!
17 Dec 2010, 15:56 pm
@stormersboy : Ciao bud. Have a safe and restful break.
17 Dec 2010, 16:03 pm
@stormersboy :
enjoy heranus.
17 Dec 2010, 16:10 pm
@stormersboy : ciao boet have a good one ,
@gunther : enjoy her ****??
or was that meant to be hermanus?
17 Dec 2010, 16:36 pm
i miss Rassie’s disco lights, what happened to that idea?
mind you i also miss the pre-match cheetahs pantamime entertainment of an oke dressed up as a giant onion chased by another oke on a harley in a cheetah costume.
17 Dec 2010, 23:18 pm
“it was natural to wonder why the best tactical rugby brain in the country, if not the world, was not being utilised for his main strength.”
He was there just a year ago coaching WP and Stormers and….. FOKKOL
I take it this is the beginning of the “Rassie for Bok coach” campaign.
The Bull’s campaign haven’t even started yet.
Rich vs “anything” from the north.
17 Dec 2010, 23:26 pm
If you read this Puma, a happy belated 55th birthday.
I hope the performance of Morkel and Steyn were a good present for you on the day of your birth yesterday. Also hoping that your daughters did not give you a CD that THEY like to listen to, this year.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUMA. Hope you well, for another 55.
You will always be the gentleman of Keo in my mind.
Enjoy the weekend.
17 Dec 2010, 23:59 pm
This is a classicoffseason article. Tomorrow the perfect cheese soufflé.
18 Dec 2010, 04:18 am
“More than anything else, what the fuss over the radio story did was bring into focus a subject that had been simmering in the background throughout the 2010 season.
Would Erasmus become jealous of Coetzee’s success? Would Coetzee react badly if not given full credit for being his own man and would he become irritated with having Erasmus above him in the pecking order?”
“The first question can almost certainly be answered in the negative.”
Just a pity you did not spent time in your article trying to answer the 2nd and 3rd question also, Mr. Rich.
Some of us are waiting.
1. “Would Coetzee react badly because he was not given full credit for being his own man?”
Care to explain what you mean by this.
2. “would he (Toetie, I suppose) become irritated with having Erasmus above him in the pecking order?”
What pecking order are we talking about here? Bok coaching job after 2011??? Care to share with us some of your inside knowledge?
18 Dec 2010, 04:27 am
All I know is the better coached side won the CC.
18 Dec 2010, 04:28 am
Ja die manne staan vroeg op! Die haan se kraai is die beste tyd van die dag.
18 Dec 2010, 04:32 am
5. stormer in a teacup and some are working late…
18 Dec 2010, 14:15 pm
Congrats on your first double ton, Jaques Kallis. Well played.
I’m sure there will be a few more before you retire now that you have that mon key off your back.
Also congrats to AB and Amla on their centuries. Well done boys.
18 Dec 2010, 16:43 pm
@nama1 : well said Nyama
Kallis is a absolute star
18 Dec 2010, 17:13 pm
ROTFLMAO tttostsomething comes in to transformation it all up… “you loving this Transy”?
19 Dec 2010, 01:03 am
@stormersboy : Cheers. I remember the steaks in SA being bigger.
19 Dec 2010, 14:12 pm
Does anyone think Keegan Daniel could make it as a midfielder
(burst of pace)
(fast hands and linking well with backs)
(good defence and physicality)
19 Dec 2010, 18:29 pm
@subliminal verses : Absolutely! Think he’ll do great!
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