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Aled Walters' exit the latest change to cup-winning Springboks staff
By Online Editors
South Africa have lost the services of the Welshman who played a key part in the Springboks’ 2019 World Cup triumph. Aled Walters joined Rassie Erasmus as his head of athletic performance in 2018 after initially working with the South African World Cup-winning coach at Irish province Munster. However, rather than stay on under new boss Jacques Nienaber, another colleague he first met at Munster, family reasons will see Walters take up a position back in the UK.
“It’s obviously sad to lose someone of Aled’s ability, but we understand that the unprecedented times we are in brings about difficult challenges and we respect his wish to return to the UK,” said Erasmus. “Aled has made an enormous impact since joining the Springboks in 2018 and I know that while the whole squad will be sad to see him go, he will also have our very best wishes for the future.”
Walters added: “My tenure with the Springboks can be described as some of the best times I’ve had in rugby, but these are uncertain times and the wish to be closer to families based in Wales and Ireland was a key consideration in making what was a very hard decision.”
The departure of Walters means that the focus for all three of the Munster staff Erasmus has with him in South Africa has now changed since winning the World Cup. With Erasmus himself concentrating on his director of rugby role, Nienaber is stepping up from defence coach to become head coach.
Meanwhile, ex-Munster assistant Felix Jones, who filled in as a technical coach in the run-up to the finals after illness ruled out Swys de Bruin, switched to a European-based coaching consultancy role earlier this year.
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Latest Comments
The England backs can't be that dumb, he has been playing on and off for the last couple of years. If they are too slow to keep up with him that's another matter.
He was the only thing stopping England from getting their arses handed to them in the Aussie game. If you can't fit a player with that skill set into an England team then they are stuffed.
Go to commentsSteve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
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