Best news ever:

Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus is set to reclaim the head coaching reins after the Rugby World Cup.

Jacques Nienaber will vacate the role after the tournament in France, and South African Rugby are set to turn to Erasmus to fill the position.

Erasmus to take the reins

According to Rapport, SA Rugby will recruit a new defence coach instead of a new head coach, with Erasmus returning to the head coaching position.

A new head coach would be appointed in 2025, with the likely candidate coming from within the coaching staff.

This comes after Daan Human, Mzwandile Stick and Deon Davids signed contract extensions until after the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

The report adds that the current plan would only be derailed if the ‘wheels fall off completey’ for the Springboks in 2023.

Erasmus would be fulfilling the director of rugby and head coach roles as he did in 2018 and 2019.

He will also be assisting SA Rugby in finding his successor for the latter position in 2025.

Assistants

The Boks will also recruit a replacement for Felix Jones, who joined their coaching team before the last World Cup. Jones is off to England and will join Steve Borthwick’s coaching ticket after the 2023 World Cup.

Rapport adds that England approached Bok scrum coach Human to replace Richard Cockerill, but instead, he opted to remain in South Africa.

Meanwhile, Davids and Stick are understood to be the early frontrunners to take the head coach reins in 2025, if necessary.

Following the news that Nienaber is heading to Leinster after the World Cup, several coaches have expressed their interest in the head coach role to Erasmus, according to a Rapport source.

“Remember, the position as the Boks’ head coach in extremely sought after because South Africa beat the British and Irish Lions and are World Cup champions,” the informed source noted.

“Depending on what Rassie himself decides, it will not be difficult to find a world-class coach in Jacques’ place.”

So, another four years of mediocrity as nothing changes. Aside from the appendage leaving. 

Which means DDA will be the first Bok 12 to play well into his 40s.

I don't mind Rassie but damn I can't stand that he won't try something different at 12.

This is totally absurd. Nienaber stays, Rassie becomes the head coach after the WC, for a year. And in 2025 we get Stick or Davids?

Given Nienaber’s decision to go he should step down. Erasmus should take us through the WC, much as I hate the idea, there isn’t time to get a new coach now. And any future decisions should await WC results.

The Rasputin of South African rugby.

Agreed he should take over now before our 23 season starts, with Nienhaber defence coach….after World Cup pretty much relies on our WC performances.

klop

Can someone remind me why Harrassmus “vacated” the head coaching role in the first place??

So the only difference would be him actually fronting up to the press instead of hiding behind his puppets. 

I wasn't convinced about last years performance and neither our performance since we beat the British and Irish Lions or the fact that we chickened out of the Championship in Australia. 

Yet, his stadium ban and having poor match tactics under Niena. 

That said, I do respect him as a mastermind of coaching and that the know how to motivate players. 

But, not sure in his selection of assistant coaches. 

Rassie has been walking a very tight rope when it comes to representation. Something he can't back out now. 

So I'll reserve my judgment until after the World Cup. 

If we crash out in the quarters then I would say it is time for him to pack his bags immediately and don't even bother coming back to SA. 

The boks have stiff competition this year and will be a bruising affair. 

Warmups - Aus, NZ, Arg, Wales, NZ 

WC - Scotland, Tonga, Ireland, ?,

WC QR - France or NZ

WC SM - Eng / Aus

This will be the ultimate test of his coaching as he will have to beat all top 6 teams in 8 weeks. 

This will be insane, but if he pulls it off I will shut up. 

But for me it will have to be a Semi Final. 

Moolaa I think Harrassmiss is not built for a long term campaign. More of a quick fix and move on sort of guy. Given our WC win and the strong generation of players, things were set for a patient build. New skills could have been added, exits for aging greats like Vermeulen could have been planned.

Instead Harrassmiss gave the reigns to a talented defensive coach, who didn’t have the requisite experience. And then as he got bored, he dabbled and created controversies.

None of this shows any respect for Springbok brand. No Bok coach will be rid of this man’s shadow until he is gone as Director of Rugby.

Mozart, maybe he is a trickster. Don't know if you recall all his antics way back at the Cheetahs when he took over. One could even go further back as far when when he played under Laurie Mains and secret practice sessions with the forwards to work on his line out tricks for the cats. 

Then you had his disco tech on the roof of the Free state stadium, not to mention exploiting the prop rotation loop hole. But he got the cheetahs a draw in the currie cup and then won it the following year. So he knows how to take a weak team and how to use tricks to navigate through difficult situations. 

I agree, long term and building squad depth and keeping players in SA has not been his best area. 

But, he brought the Stormers back up by buying smart and getting the right players at the Stormer. Getting Jacque Fourie, Gbabani Bobo and Januarie were all smart moves he made. Then bolster with Nienabers defence. He stepped aside to let Coetzee take over, but you could see that Coetzee turned the Stormers into a very defensive team. 

However, Rassie brought through a lot of young talent at the Stormers who are now at the boks. 

That is probably why we still see the likes of Eldstadt making an appearance. Don't be surprised seeing him for the boks this year in Kolisi place instead of Marcel Coetzee. 

Then, remember chasing the sun interview, where Rassie was looking at how to get penalties and scoring opportunities during the game. That takes a lot of effort and not something you can do every game. 

So I hope he has a plan for us like he did last time, come back to his brilliant best. 

But I'm also afraid he is going to pull same stunt and push Stick as the new head coach

Good points Corn. Like Eddie, Rassie is a tactician….likely to come up with some new looks on the day. I was surprised Eddie had nothing for the WC final, perhaps he was over confident after beating the ABs.

Both coaches have never really kicked on after early success though. Perhaps because smoke and mirrors fade as teams get to expect them. Teams will mirror image the bomb squad, choose players who can deal with the box kicks, bolster their scrums and mauls ….to play the Boks.

But they could also focus on fetching, where the Boks are weak and do a Jake like deep dive into discipline to deny the lineout opportunities in the 22.

There were plenty of signs last year that these things were happening. The truth is, tactical surprises aside…Rassie’s success came from a return to Bok basics and a smothering defence. What happens if we play France and rather than getting scrumming penalties, the huge Frog front row put us under penalty pressure?

I’m sure there will be some Rassie surprise,it’s in his nature, but will it be enough to offset the fundamentals he has pretty much ignored for 4 years ?

Lots of hot air and babbling away as per usual. If by now you can't see that Rassie is a very smart coach you are beyond helping. 

I certainly would like to see Rassie in direct control of the Boks. 

Yeah, Rassie is a "ace up his sleeve" kind of guy.

That Flying V in the WC final was a prime example and even though it was only worth 3 points, the gut punch effect of it was worth much more.

I think that's why we sometimes fail against lesser teams under him. He sacrifices a little in regular preparation for the thinking out of the box stuff.

Can't say that I hate it.

Back when Meyer was coach I always used to say that I prefer us to beat the best from time to time and drop down the rankings also, instead of simply accepting that we would remain at a steady 3rd and never beat the ABs. And that's exactly what Rassie has delivered.

Love it or lump it, at least with Rassie staying on there will be some continuity.

Rassie is a great as far as coaches go. But the same hatters who trashed Step Du Toit as he was winning the IRB player of the year award also trashed Rassie. They have precious little rugby acumen. 

Been listening to Ollie Le Roux interviews and his experience under different coaches. 

It is amazing to think that he actually got capped back in 1994 as a 20 year old, all the old tricks that those old school props use to dish out. A lot of dirty play and punching at the bottom of the ruck. 

But Ollie hates Nick Mallet and hates it when certain players gets pushed ahead when it is not their time. Very old school mentality of you earn your place. 

So he said that Mallet should never have dropped Teichman and that Henri Honriball was deflated once Gary got dropped. Mark Andrews told Mallet to Fuck Off after a game once and nearly punched him on the side line before a game. 

So Ja, I can see why Roos and the likes are not being rushed in as Rassie comes from the same cloth and played with Ollie at the Freestate and the boks, Rassie also brought Ollie over from the sharks and gave him a crack to win the Curry Cup. 

I guess as much as I hate seeing good talent not being included, it is absolutely important that the team respect the coach. 

Rassie is in a very fortunate position as he is our longest serving head coach after Doc Craven and longest in the modern era. He definitely prolonged his career by allowing Niena to be the front guy. 

But it is also good perhaps that he doesn't bolt off but work with the next crop of players, but please don't let the next coaches be Stick or Davids. 

"So he said that Mallet should never have dropped Teichman and that Henri Honriball was deflated once Gary got dropped."

Ja, I just listened to Brendan Nel interviewing Mark Andrews today during Covid times. Andrews actually really rates him as one of the best coaches he ever played under, but also stated that Mallet went mad and lost the plot. The coaching became erratic and they were back in the dark times under Carel Du Plessis. Players rate experience coaches and they also rate coaches that can be mentors. All the sharks players speak very highly of Macintosh. 

But the biggest thing Mark said that he likes that Rassie brought back the pride for playing for the bok jersey and that past players before Rassie just played for the boks to get better contracts. He could see how Kolisi appreciated being a bok and what it means. 

"Director of Rugby or even head coach. A much better rugby brain than Rassie and infinitely more presentable and likeable."

Maybe on TV, but he was a real dick to a lot of players...threw a young Gaffie under the bus...I like Mallet, but his people skills suck...the Rooinek of Bok c oaches. 

I think Mallet was a good coach but Rassie is a great coach. 

Harrassmiss has a 65% win rate with one of the best Bok talent pools ever….absolute mediocrity.

Exactly, he is under White + Meyer 67%, and Far away from Mallet’s success @ 71% ….so maybe he is waiting to let it all out this year or not??? ….the way media hypes Rassie up a Person can swear we sitting at a win Ratio of 80%….but we have not moved above 65% in 4 years….do you guys really think he is still going to produce that kind of success? You might be in for a long wait :)

He's also has the harshest BEE restraints like ever.

I can believe that….but then again he picks the worst players like orie , Dweba and leaves out Butlezi, thisituka Brothers, Simelane, Nama Xaba etc. There is much better choices to be made in line with this BEE shyte.

More hogwash from Muppet mozzz. Rassie picked the Boks up out of the gutter.

Ja, 63 % is not great if you compare it to France, Ireland and England. I mean Eddie had 72% + but they did play Italy a lot, but that is only 6 matches. I know the rugby championship is harder, but Aus and Arg haven’t been the same since Covid or even before. 

Rassie still has this experimentation mentality at test level. 

I just look at Ireland and New Zealand how they manage their A teams. Why cap Muchunu in a test when you could just use the A team. 

Saru could have arranged more midweek games. 

But when he did have the chance to coach the A team he bolted to France to try and save his buddy. But left two affirmative action hires and we know how that ended up. 

These last 4 years was a good opportunity for him to work with the next crop of players and take them on a separate tour.

Stop selling yourself short Beeno Biscuits and raise your standards….yes he did take us out of the deep gutter, but a nice safe “ Buffer “ between us and the gutter, is not there yet….We can be doing much much better and ending our 22 season not being able to beat the top teams is not good enough….instead Rassie and his gang of media Junkies , hyped our win over Italy and a ENG team that was far away from there Best Form…But the important ones we lost….let,s hope it will be different for this very defining and important Season coming up.

It's actually amazing when I think about it. Right now I'm probably about 60/40 happy that Rassie will "take over" again...

But if you tell me that Rassie will drop DDA...I swear my happiness rating goes up to 80/20.

It looks like a Wiese is favoured. As a stand-alone I'm happy about that and think he's one of the few that can take over from Thor and potentially outdo him in the end. I still have no idea how Saffex thinks he's dumb muscle but I get the feeling that's an appearance thing rather than how he actually plays.

But what about Roos!!?? You may say it's a luxury problem but that's only half the story because not picking that guy is basically self-sabotage. He has to play...and not this 40 minute nonsense. He should be starting with Wiese.

What do you guys think? Do Roos and Wiese rotate the 8 jersey, does Roos play a utility role or do they only pick Roos a cover when Wiese is injured?

Has Wiese been tried at 7? I would like to have both on the field at once...then Wiese can play a kinda Willem Alberts role...but it's probably not a good idea to play him out of position...still worth a try at least.

Wiese breaks tackles and get over advantage line. His game is simple and doesn’t off load that often. Rassie wants a certain type of player and hates too much flair. 

But then we have kwagga who is more a retread centre that can play loose forward. 

So I think Rassie looks for non flashy players with a high work rate. That is why Mostert get the nod as he hits a lot of rucks, but not that effective. 

But Roos has range and pace, can break the line and run smart angles and have good hands. 

I would almost put Roos at 7, gives him more freedom to carry. 

PSTD should go back to lock. We would have a really big mobile pack. Put Kwagga at 6 and Wiese at 8. We can speed up the game and have forwards that runs good angles and keep the defence guessing 

Imagine this for a second...Roos in an All Blacks jersey.

Immediately one imagines how he would terrorise us.

I can never understand why we can't seem to get that type of effect out of our world class players. The ABs seems to look at what they have and then figure out a way to get the best out of everybody's strengths.

We seem to understand that a player is good and then assume that becsuse he is good he should be able to fit the way we want him to play.

This is why I'd like us to have an Eddy Jones type to take over the Boks for a few years. As it stands, Swys is still the only coach that could take good players and get better than their best out of them. Meyer, Rassie...they're both the types that have a vision and exclude anything that doesn't fit it. To do that is to assume that the plan you have in your head supersedes everything else...which is ridiculous when you consider all the variables involved.