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Former Springboks Coach explains why Rassie Erasmus is such an 'Extraordinary Coach'
By Henry Lee
Former Springboks head coach Nick Mallett has explained why he thinks current head coach Rassie Erasmus has become so successful in a role that he held from 1997 to 2000.
Erasmus will be looking to win the Springboks’s third straight World Cup after victories at the 2023 World Cup in France, following on from the triumph in Japan back in 2019.
The 68-year-old former head coach said on the Boks Office podcast that he believes his success comes from experience in multiple different situations.
“Going through, he was successful with Free State and won the Currie Cup, and then came to Western Province, got into the final of Super Rugby. He went to Munster and was successful there,” Mallett said.
“He’s always been successful. Initially, it was his technical ability that shone through but now it’s his emotional intelligence that has really developed since he’s got into his 50s.”
Mallett praised Erasmus’s ability to understand the players and their lives, making the players feel comfortable in their positions.
“His ability to understand that every single person is different, you press different buttons with different people, respect all the cultures. Be inclusive but don’t force people – we’re not all one, we’re all different.”
“His ability to handle a Makazole Mapimpi at the same time as a Pieter-Steph du Toit or Duane Vermeulen is extraordinary.
Erasmus’s rugby brain is one of the best in the business, but Mallett thinks his statistical thinking is unique to other coaches.
“He’s absolutely honest with the players, so every guy knows where he sits, what he’s got to do to get better and he always presents stats to the players.
“He says to them that the reason you’re not playing is the other guy made 18 tackles and you made 14, and you gave four penalties away."
“He’s statistically driven but caring at the same time, which is an unusual combination.”
Mallett isn’t worried about if Erasmus will ever be sacked, instead, he’s concerned about what the Springboks do after the 2027 World Cup in Australia where Erasmus may look for another challenge.
“The worrying thing is what will happen when he goes. But I don’t think he has to worry about the Sword of Damocles being anywhere near him.”
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Latest Comments
The only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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You’ve got the perfect structure to run your 1A and 1B on a quota of club representation by Province. Have some balance/reward system in place to promote and reward competitiveness/excellence. Say each bracket has 12 teams, each province 3 spots, given the Irish Shield winner once of the bottom ranked provinces spots, so the twelve teams that make up 1A are 4 from Leinster, 3 each from Connacht and Munster, and 2 from Ulster etc. Run the same rule over 1B from the 1A reults/winner/bottom team etc. I’d imagine IRFU would want to keep participation to at least two teams from any one province but if not, and there was reason for more flexibility and competitveness, you can simply have other ways to change the numbers, like caps won by each province for the year prior or something.
Then give those clubs sides much bigger incentive to up their game, say instead of using the Pro sides for the British and Irish Cup you had going, it’s these best club sides that get to represent Ireland. There is plenty of interest in semi pro club cup competitions in europe that Ireland can invest in or drive their own creation of.
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