What hit Rassie Rrasmus 'the hardest' during ongoing ban

Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus is very much an open book emotionally and it is in that vein that he has revealed what hit him the hardest during his matchday ban, which is still ongoing.

Last November Erasmus received was banned from all rugby activity for two months and was barred from attending Tests in an official capacity for 10 months, a punishment which is set to elapse on September 30, 2022.

The bans came as a result of Erasmus’ behaviour towards match officials during the Springboks’ 2-1 series victory over the British and Irish Lions last summer.

While the first two months were spent sipping pints of Guinness and making funny social media videos at home, the later matchday ban has a potentially bigger impact on the renegade rugby thinker, and he's admitted as much on Twitter.

Posting a video of the South African national anthem, the 49-year-old wrote: "To be honest this is what hit me the hardest from the world rugby ban!! I miss the crowds and the unity I see on television when our people sing the Anthem"

Erasmus has been box-office of late on social media. Last week he posted a video taken from a team talk after the second Test of the recent Wales tour, where Erasmus explained why the side learned plenty about their players – win or lose.

“First game well done. Second game well done,” said Erasmus. “That last one, I think it was a penalty to us. We kick it over and everybody would say ‘listen, we made 14 changes, we learned a lot’… what did we learn less than if we would have won the game? Absolutely f*** all.

"So, losing by one point with a totally [different] team has given us a lot of answers.”

He also admitted that he currently weighs 123kg and is aiming to get down to 110kg, although he admits he’s done ‘f*** all about it’.