Rassie Erasmus: 2021 resignation letter, Lions tour cancellation row

Rassie Erasmus has explained why he wrote a letter of resignation to SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux in July 2021 before the Test series versus the British and Irish Lions, adding that he came within seconds of pressing the ‘Leave’ button on a video call which would have resulted in the cancellation of the tour.

South Africa at the time was caught up in a covid crisis and Erasmus has now recounted the tensions that built up around not being able to fully prepare for the series.

The story is part of the the South African director of rugby’s autobiography which has recently hit the bookshelves in the UK and Ireland after being initially published in Afrikaans just before the start of Rugby World Cup 2023, a tournament which the Springboks went on to win.

Writing in ‘Rassie – Stories of Life and Rugby’, Erasmus highlighted how the fallout from the cancellation of a preparatory Test match versus Georgia was the moment when the 2021 tour turned sour, coming within a whisker of being called off only to be eventually saved by an unnamed member of the Lions management speak up on a call and insisting that they wanted to find solutions just as the SA director was about to end the meeting.

“This is probably where the tour started turning sour,” Erasmus wrote. “I called a group of players and management to my room and asked them to trust me.

"I said we couldn’t continue under the current situation where we were stuck in the hotel while the Lions were playing rugby. I said: ‘How the f*** are we going to play the Lions if we don’t play the SA A game on Cape Town?’ We were going to get a beating because we weren’t match-fit and needed that game before the Tests.

“I then wrote a letter to Jurie Roux in which I told him that Jacques and I were resigning because we couldn’t just throw away the Springboks’ name like that. I said we were in an impossible situation, and while I knew that we were on life support financially and SA needed the series to go ahead, we couldn’t carry on.

"We were saying that he could find new coaches, but we weren’t the people who would be irresponsible and put the Springboks up against international opposition and get 50 points scored against us because we hadn’t played enough rugby.

“Jurie was very upset. I was fighting hard. I said, ‘Let’s get on a call with the Lions management and the MAC and let me hear all the rules and protocols and how they are supposed to work.’ My issue was that when we got covid cases, we were isolating for 11 days from when the person tested positive, while when the Lions got covid cases, they were isolating from when they first got symptoms, which turned out to be a shorter quarantine period.

“Their experience of covid protocols during the Six Nations stood them in good stead. All I wanted to do was fly 23 healthy players to Cape Town and play the game on the Wednesday. I asked why the Lions could fly to Cape Town and not us.

“The players agreed with my approach. We got onto a Teams call on the Sunday morning, and I could see on Jurie’s face that he was despondent. Everyone was keeping quiet. I spoke up. ‘I have something to say – covid won, and we give up. We just can’t operate like this.

“My players are getting depressed, they can’t socialise, or see the families, or have meetings together. They are training in their rooms, doing sit-ups and push-ups using hotel furniture. We were doing everything virtually, and now we want to just get onto a field and train. We can’t do that, yet you guys are flying to Cape Town.’

“The Lions raised the issue of our 11 positive cases. I said I’d fly the players who didn’t have covid to Cape Town, but they objected. We had to wait until Thursday, they said, but that would mean the South Africa A game would be cancelled. I asked how we could play them after just one Test match against Georgia while they had four warm-up games. Their response was for us to organise our own warm-up game against someone.

“’Who?’ I asked. Against Western Province or something like that, was the response. I must add that they weren’t being arrogant; in fact, they were talking very nicely to me. I said this didn’t make any sense. If we didn’t leave that Sunday night to Cape Town, the tour was off. And they said, ‘Well, then the tour is off.’ I said, ‘Okay, thank you for everybody’s input, thank you for listening, and thank you for trying.’

“Then, as I was about to click on the red ‘Leave’ button, I heard a member of the Lions management speak up: ’Whoa, whoa, whoa, we are here to find solutions.’ Finally, we agreed another round of covid tests, and all the players who were negative would then fly to Cape Town, and those who were positive would stay behind. Most of the management team were positive, so (Mzwandile) Stokke and I coached the team.”

The Springboks went on to win the Test series 2-1 in Cape Town, bouncing back after a first Test loss to the Lions to win the second and third games.