Erasmus quits Province post
10 Jan 2012
WP senior professional coach Rassie Erasmus has resigned and will explore other coaching options.
The news of Erasmus’s resignation broke on Monday night. Die Burger reported that the Cape coaching guru had already informed his employers of his decision to leave, and that Erasmus has been offered coaching jobs at clubs in England and France.
On Tuesday, Erasmus himself confirmed that he would be leaving Western Province and the Stormers at the end of January.
‘The pieces are in place at Province,’ he said via a statement. ‘Over the past few seasons we have put the structures in place and they are working well.
‘The management team and player base is settled and there are now a fantastic bunch of youngsters pushing the older guys hard. The squad is very close to taking that final step and winning silverware.
‘My job is largely done here and there is no doubt in my mind that Allister [Coetzee], Matt [Proudfoot], Fleckie [Robbie Fleck] and the rest of the management and players have got what it takes to get there.’
Erasmus admitted that he has been offered other coaching opportunities.
‘There are a number of new opportunities that have surfaced at a higher level and I am currently considering my options. Each is an exciting and massive new challenge, and that is a big attraction to me at this stage of my career.
‘In the interim I have offered to continue to assist at Province whenever required. I have enjoyed my time here in the Cape immensely and feel that I have contributed to facilitating building the structures that have taken us to the brink of success.
‘I have no doubt that that success is but a tiny step away now and I leave Province satisfied with the strides made. I am grateful to Province for the opportunity and Newlands, the Stormers, WP and the Faithful will always have a special place in my heart.’
It has been suggested that Erasmus’s decision to leave came as a shock to his WP bosses, but managing director Rob Wagner moved to dispel the rumours. According to Wagner, the union was waiting for the right time to announce his departure.
‘Rassie has made a huge contribution at WP. We are obviously very sorry to see him go, but understand his desire for new challenges.
‘Rassie has been very good in keeping us informed of his decision and we have been waiting for the return of our senior players and team management before making the announcement. We understand that he is a big loss but we are also confident that the structures, players, coaching and management staff and the plans in place at all levels in the Province, are strong enough to allow us to make that final jump and secure the silverware that we are all working towards.’
Having served as technical advisor to the Boks in 2007 and again for the duration of the 2011 World Cup, Erasmus was mentioned as a candidate for the head coaching post in 2012. However, it’s since emerged that Gert Smal is the favourite to succeed Peter de Villiers.
The new Bok coach will be officially appointed on 27 January. If Erasmus doesn’t take up a post overseas at a club or Test nation, he could possibly join the Bok coaching team again.
240 Comments
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9 Jan 2012, 22:38 pm
Now this dragon is smoking!
9 Jan 2012, 22:41 pm
So according to some Rich writer, AC is clueless without Rassie there sitting in the back ground ready to hold his hand …. oh dear how will AC survive.
9 Jan 2012, 22:49 pm
What the f?
Can this be for any other reason besides the Bok job?
Resigning just before S15 season?
Not a good sign.
9 Jan 2012, 22:51 pm
Gert Smal
Rassie Erasmus
David Campese
I’d take that as a coaching troika for the Boks.
9 Jan 2012, 22:51 pm
@puff-3:
For the Stormers, I mean.
Duh.
9 Jan 2012, 22:52 pm
Hmmm…
Rassie as left field Bok coach announcement or going over to help Mallet in England???
9 Jan 2012, 22:54 pm
@puff-3:
Hate to repeat myself, but I said WP rugby is in disarray at the moment…
9 Jan 2012, 22:54 pm
@PissAnt-6:
Rassie to replace new Bok coach Gert Smal as Ireland asst coach.
This is fun!
9 Jan 2012, 22:56 pm
@puff-4: not good at all – I liked having him around ******** up with talent identification and not delivering any trophies.
Damn that Tobie Tightass getting rid of our greatest ally at the Stormers.
9 Jan 2012, 22:56 pm
What’s next?
Peter Grant stays in Japan?
Andries Bekker gets another long-term injury?
Habana signs for Toulon?
9 Jan 2012, 22:57 pm
All the wrong okes resigning (leaving) WP Rugby – how about Titus, Wagner & Co?
9 Jan 2012, 22:59 pm
I am out, will see what I can dig up tomorrow. Something stinks.
9 Jan 2012, 23:00 pm
whats rassie like as a coach? is it possible that he’ll get the boks job? if so is a good or bad thing?
9 Jan 2012, 23:01 pm
If Rassie does get Bok post then you can bet both Juan Smith and Schalk Burger will be his team leaders, which means he’ll find space in the pack for both of them. And he won’t leave out Brussow either.
1. Mtawarira
2. Du Plessis
3. Du Plessis
4. Smith
5. Bekker
6. Brussow
7. Burger
8. Alberts
Oh yeah!
9 Jan 2012, 23:01 pm
@PissAnt-11: Rassie is employable elsewhere. Not everyone has that option
9 Jan 2012, 23:01 pm
BTW Keo i scooped you by almost 1 hour.
Again.
9 Jan 2012, 23:05 pm
You okes seen new French coach’s squad for 6 nations?
Looks imposing.
He’s kept the stalwarts who played in RWC final but also brought back Nyanga, Beauxis and Malzieu.
Who knows? Maybe Michalak, Chabal and Basteraud will get a look in at some point too.
9 Jan 2012, 23:05 pm
oh won’t you help me sing these songs of freedom
cos all I ever had are redemption songs
let em spread their wings and fly like a blue bird in the sky
time they learned how to flap where angels fear to tread.
Rassie and AC weren’t hitting it off anyway was a marriage made in hegemony
Pissant you wanna pull some your king making strings.. organize a slot in that disjointed WP fallout shelter and I fix their aching dreams one time sharp shoot just like A.B.C – 1,2,3 – doh, re , me
9 Jan 2012, 23:10 pm
@puff-17: man how is it that Basteraud is able to run without falling over – I saw this prop playing for Toulon the other night and was quite impressed until the commentators said his name.
9 Jan 2012, 23:16 pm
@RL-19:
So much talent squandered by French coaching staff over last four years.
Absolutely no continuity to build team confidence.
Chabal, Jauzion, Michalak et al – international careers put on hold or destroyed because of coaching eccentricities.
Imagine what France could have achieved with more clarity and continuity.
The majority of their players will start to get a bit long in the tooth from now but they have had and continue to have amazing depth.
They just need a sane and balanced coach.
9 Jan 2012, 23:23 pm
Rassie to be part of the A coaching team working for Nick’s as assistant with England.
Boks to get a B team, comprising Smal (never won anything as the boss) and some other high quality losers (Coetzee etc)
9 Jan 2012, 23:25 pm
@puff-20: hmph. chabal was one dimensional. great at carting up the ball but useless in the other lock core roles like jumping, mauling, clearing out rucks. sure he’s dynamic and carries the ball up really well but its the dirty work of the tight5 thats more important. i’d still have him in the team but he’d be a bence player
michalak, too un predicatible and inconsistent. though given the chance and mentored correctly could’ve worked on that. did have a lot of offer.
but yeah france seriously need to get their **** together. they’ve been underperforming for years and have had loads of talent waste away on the shelf.
9 Jan 2012, 23:33 pm
@Puff 20,
same could be said for the Boks
9 Jan 2012, 23:52 pm
@puff-14: I like the idea of Smith at 4. More intelligent than Bakkies, but still all the grunt.
9 Jan 2012, 23:53 pm
Good riddance to bad free state rubbish.now we just need to send ac back to pe.
10 Jan 2012, 00:04 am
WP rugby is a joke. I pity the players…..but without quality management and coaching they will continue to underachieve.
10 Jan 2012, 00:05 am
The two most earth -shatttering stories of this day in the ‘Republic’ highlights worryingly the emphatic existence of RACISM/APARTHEID to those of you fakes who so cllaim thhat non-racism and democracy reigns?
Where is this non-racism that so many of you liars claim exist and flourishes when you read the headings of these 2 stories?
1. ‘Whites only’ campsite to be investigated
January 9 2012 at 11:18am
2. Rev’s ‘kill whites’ tweet a shocker.
10 Jan 2012, 00:23 am
AC gets bok job…. Rassie ends up long term England coach…
WP this season could lose…
Johaan Sadie
JJ Engelbrecht
Rassie Erasmus
Alistair Coetzee
Tim Whitehead
Jaque Fourie
Conrad Janjtes
Adriaan Fondse
Anton Van Zyl
Francois Louw
and many more
Huge turnaround gona happen in the Cape and maybe eventually some silverware will come our way!
10 Jan 2012, 00:23 am
Just witness some of the ‘love’ some and many DA supporters would have us believe rules the noormal S.African day:
Scamp, wrote
11:14pm on 9 January 2012
Remember Blood River. You declare war on us whites and we will destroy you.
Crusader, wrote
10:58pm on 9 January 2012
And callng them pale faced ******* makes you just as bad
Anonymous, wrote
11:18pm on 9 January 2012
All you descedants of ****** settlers, we shall not allow you to bully us in our land… it’s your madness to have left your cold Europe and come settle here uninvited. We shall respond by spilling blood out of your veins… Africa is a Blackman’s natural habitat, here you must respect us; else your blood shall spill or you would wish to leave as fast as you came here to harass us.
Crusader, wrote
10:36pm on 9 January 2012
some of you say whites must leave the country or be kille to end racism….Does anyone else see the lack of logic here? arent they being racist? Luckily, the majority of white and blacks in this beautifull country WANTS to live in harmony. its only a minority that is fuelling the racist fires. i say we get rid of them instead, regardless of their colour
Anonymous, wrote
10:48pm on 9 January 2012 It is an extremely unfortunate fact that probably in excess of 70% of the population would have been more than happy to wait far in excess of an hour to sit down and eat at that restaurant, if only they could afford it. Please don’t abuse your education and good fortune by continuing something that we spent 300 years proving does not work, and never will. This you do in the name of religion, where were you when the lights went on, you chop?
camp, wrote
11:32pm on 9 January 2012
Why don’t you take the white man’s suit off, get out of the white man’s car and leave the white man’s restaurant and go and dress in animal skins and eat what savages eat under a tree in the bush…no waiting !
Anonymous, wrote
10:29pm on 9 January 2012
Umshini Wami! Good reverend, man of God, when can we start killing these pale-face white ******* roaming in our land? My bazooka is ready – one Boer, one bullet!
CAN YOU FAKERS NOW ALL FEEL THE LOVE AND PEACE YOU LIE ABOUT?
And there are yet 270 such posts on that topic and by tomorrow it will be beyond 400 posts.
Wake up as you LIES are staring you in the face and making you the laughing stock of the world.
The above are not even the most vile comments from both sides of the divide.
10 Jan 2012, 00:29 am
If you cannot put principle ABOVE profit then you cannot be for non-racism.
How manmy previously enfranchised can, in fact, place principle above profit.
And if profit is the name of your game then you most certainly have to LIE and CHEAT to attain it.
10 Jan 2012, 00:39 am
@ET.-27: Cry me a river, poephol.
10 Jan 2012, 00:39 am
@ET.-30:
Interesting view on ……..rugby.
10 Jan 2012, 00:39 am
@kwas-31:
Nou het jy kak gemaak!!!
10 Jan 2012, 00:41 am
@puff-10: Habana signs for Toulon and Grant stays in Japan? Like winning the Lotto and getting laid on the same day. Heaven.
10 Jan 2012, 01:10 am
@ET.-29: isnt this a wee bit generalising? u saying that all saffa’s, black and white polarise to either argument? over simplified
10 Jan 2012, 04:27 am
@ET.-27:
Must be a bad day for the Whites
1-0
10 Jan 2012, 06:19 am
Not the end of the world… more like the dawning of a new day…!
Exciting times for WP & Bok rugby…
So many people say AC is so conservative… But when we see the exciting running rugby he coached in the CC while Rassie was away for over 3 months… Perhaps being freed of having to coach from Rassie’s playbook is just the tonic WP needs…
Yes yes… we stuffed up the final when the Boks and Rassie came back… but up until then we’d played exciting rugby with a very young and injury depleted squad…
So not the worst news in the world to wake up to…
10 Jan 2012, 06:35 am
@ufo-37:
Spoken like a gentleman. Good luck to you, Rassie. And success to to AC. No hard feelings.
10 Jan 2012, 07:07 am
interesting news.
very intersting indeed.
10 Jan 2012, 07:12 am
K@k timing tough…
10 Jan 2012, 07:17 am
Rassie to be named Bok head coach come end January
10 Jan 2012, 07:17 am
Seemed reasonable to me
AC to the Boks, PdV to the Stormers, so Rassie is out
Not sure about Smal being the leading candidate, makes no sense, all things considered
10 Jan 2012, 07:29 am
@Jinx2-38:
Thanks J2…
Yeah, exactly… think too many of us take all this way too personally… it’s just a game… and it’s not even any of us playing it…!!
@HHS-40:
the timing of this… and any other resignations are forced by the timing of the bok announcement on 27/1… as many here commented when saru announced the date… it was always gonna mess with the s15 plans of the guys involved…
because of this i expect rassie will be a permanent member of the bok coaching team… i don’t think head coach… but one of the team in the technical analyst role that he seems to thrive on…
10 Jan 2012, 07:34 am
@ufo-37: that would be the semi sweetheart…
10 Jan 2012, 07:37 am
the timing is interesting considering the announcement of bok coach at the end of Jan.
I hear that a lot of youngsters leave WP as their pay structure is somewhat different to other unions. Junior players would get something like R4k for a game, whilst the bulls and sharks would pay something like R10k.
For the old guard this is not a problem as they are on nice fat contracts, but for the youngsters that obviously makes a difference.
Anyone know a bit more on this?
10 Jan 2012, 07:38 am
@trupisero-44:
yeah yeah…
trupi – 1
ufo – 0
10 Jan 2012, 07:41 am
Eina ! starting the year like this ? So that means something is wrong down in the cape. This is realy bad news, building , starting over again , building. Maybe it’s time for province management to retire. Don’t think these guys have a clue what to do anymore. Maybe this has also got something to do with the hineken cup game that is not going to be played in cape town anymore. Maybe Rassie was not happy at province. But not a good start for province.
10 Jan 2012, 07:42 am
@trupisero-45:
if that is the case it would explain a helluva lot about why WP can’t seem to hang onto our young talent…
they also better get with the program me and up the pay-scales…
will be seriously interesting to see what… and if… anyone can add to this…
10 Jan 2012, 07:46 am
program me = programme… damn predictive text speaks yankee…
10 Jan 2012, 07:47 am
@ufo-46: lol…
@ufo-48: heard this from my boet in law who has a very close relative being one of the youngsters on the team.
Perhaps Pismier can help out a bit more here.
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