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Rassie Erasmus adds Top 14 winner to his Springboks staff
By Josh Raisey
South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus has added performance analyst Paddy Sullivan to his new-look coaching team.
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Sullivan worked as a consultant with the Springboks during their World Cup triumph last year, and has been with Montpellier since 2021, helping them win the Top 14 in 2022.
This new appointment is part of a vast overhaul of the successful Springboks coaching staff over the past four years, as Erasmus looks for a “fresh perspective from different rugby environments”.
These changes include former Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery joining as defence coach, former All Black Tony Brown taking charge of the Springboks’ attack and recently retired referee Jaco Peyper serving as a laws and discipline adviser.
Speaking after the Springboks’ recent alignment camp in Cape Town, which ran for two days from March 4, Erasmus spoke of his side’s need to “evolve”.
“As we said before last year’s tournament, there was no way that we would be successful if we kept doing things in the same way,” the double World Cup winning coach said.
“We need to evolve our game once more, as teams will definitely have looked at how we play, and how they think they can stop us.
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“We’ve also had a close look at how we need to develop as a team and what the coaching and management groups need to look like to support the players.
“We wanted to bring in Nigel Owens last year as a Laws Adviser, but we’ve been able to do that with Jaco Peyper now that he has retired from active refereeing.
“The way the Laws are interpreted and blown is always evolving and we need expert insight so we can always stay on the right side of the Laws.”
On the appointment of Sullivan, Erasmus said: “We’ve reviewed what it takes to be at the cutting edge of the game and we’ve repurposed the management structure to put as much resource as we can into the technical side of the game,” said Erasmus.
“The players will continue to get the necessary off-field support, but we wanted to make sure that we had the right roles filled to make sure that the main thing stays the main thing.”
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South Africa are gearing towards a tightly packed 2024 schedule, which includes 13 Test matches.
The Springboks’ first match since lifting the Webb Ellis Cup will come on June 22 against Wales at Twickenham, two weeks before they host world number twos Ireland in a two-Test series.
