Rassie+ EP8 | Controversy, Coaching & Comebacks: Erasmus and Mallett Unfiltered

Now the record against the weakest NZ team since readmission:

played 13 games

won 7

lost 5

drawn 1.

But NZ played 3 games at home, we played 5….the remaining 5 in Australia, Twickenham and the WC. So we had a 5/3 home advantage. Move one of those games eg Ellis Park we won by 4, less than the 7 point home advantage….and we have 5/5. One of which was the WC final where we played against 14 men for a half….also less than the statistical handicap of 10points.

So normalizing the data I have NZ 5 and the Boks 3. Against a very demoralized AB team that lost to Bargie at home one year.

So I would say Ireland and NZ have a competitive lead over the Geraasmus tenure. I’m sure that’s a bit shocking for the groupies but that’s what proper quantitative analysis, normalizing for aberrant variables, yields.

Look, we all know why Moffie is trying to make out that all Rassie's achievements are due to pure luck . . . because if that's not the case, then Moffie has backed the wrong horse and he has enormous amounts of egg sliding down his fat face.

That is why this tiresome old drunkard keeps harping on about luck.

Well, I''ll pick a lucky winner like Rassie before an unlucky loser like Moffie all day every day.

LMAO!

But Rooi no one can be stupid enough to declare that so many rugby achievements are purely down to luck - maybe one or two bits of luck along the way but to define a coach on the strength of luck since 2018 is actually just plain childish

You backed the wrong horse …..do I have to put up your post again? I never thought much of Geraasmus but I always thought Eben and company would pull us through.

Why weren’t you watching Barcelona/Inter….fabulous match

The Numbers say otherwise Sappex I have laid them out in simpleton accessible guise….this is your chance.

I watched every minute of Barca vs Inter and I agree, one of the great games.

For the umpteenth time, Moffie, you can put up every anti-Rassie post I made pre-RWC23. I don't dispute that I never liked or rated him or that I said all those things . . . but he proved me wrong and - unlike you - I can admit that and I have admitted that. So go ahead and paste all those statements again . . . I'm just not sure what it is you're trying to prove.

Moffie you have never put up the numbers you lying prick because there are no numbers to back your pathetic childish take on luck

Only a fucking childish idiot would call the achievements of Rassie - luck

Point is he didn’t prove you wrong….a whole string of uncontrollable things had to turn up aces for us to win. And I have never said he is useless. One could make the argument that he was a necessary step to restore our traditional game lost under Coetzee. Arguably he is the best forward coach we have had.

But that was all done by the 2019 WC any it’s final, which remains the best game the Boks have played under Erasmus. The next four years showed little progress and the 2023 WC was a total lucky packet….France and England had the game won and the ABs were robbed of a fair chance.

The numbers are posted above on this string Sapp…..open your eyes man

Bullshit he is the best allround coach we have ever had - the Boks play a forward dominated game with plenty of clout coming from out wide where our wings have higher strike rates than other nations - we make as many line breaks, beat as many defenders and score as many tries as any other side out there.

We have played plenty of great attacking games - look no further than thumping the AB’s at Twickers

Luck has fuck all to do with it - rugby is played over 80min by 23 players - every minute and every player has a part to play in the result - not an individual or luck and certainly not over a period spanning 7 years

Beating A team by 1 point says the sides are essentially equal. Call the Boks chance of victory 60% and the chances of winning 3 in a row are about 20%. The chances of beating France and England…..against France down by 6 points with 13 minutes to play….England down by 9 points with 11 minutes to play are in the single digits.

It wasn’t a directed, planned series of wins …it was a series of desperate last minute kicks, which occurred because the opponents infringed.

"Beating A team by 1 point says the sides are essentially equal. "

What absolute rubbish. One team had the will to win the game and the other didn't. It's usually the coach or the captain who instills that will to win . . . so both your pet hates Rassie and Siya can take a lot of credit.

So Ramos never had the ‘will to win’ but Pollard did? Because that was the deciding difference. Once again, that doesn’t mean other players didn’t make massive contributions..Ox’s scrumming for example.

But our opponents players also made massive contributions…..in the aggregate those cancelled out and left Ramos, Mo’unga, Barrett and Pollard all with the opportunity to win the respective matches. Only Pollard had the ice in his veins to pull it off.

So how much of that can we claim to be part of foresight, of a plan. Damn little, it was all just follow the formula….tackle, if in doubt kick, don’t take risks. Hell even the man who saved us wasn’t part of the plan until the knockouts and Marx’s injury.

The honest assessment is it was all desperately close and turned on a few unprogrammed occurrences. That’s rugby and sports to some extent. But the part that was programmed was hardly different from 2019….Faf’s kicking, Ox took over from the Beast and Dud Toit targeted the inside backs.

Not genius, a great pack, disciplined defence and if not the best kicker in the world, the best kicker under pressure.

Mozart

Kicking at goal is fine - but why is it possible to kick at goal in the case of penalties? Mainly because the players forced the opposition in making penalizable mistakes - and not dependent on the goalkicker himself, but on conmtributions made by team mates, Pollard converted the penalties in the case of the Springboks so he was a better and more accurate goal kicker than the other players involved and thus contributed to winning of tests - but to claim that he was the winner of the tests all on his own is total and idiotic BS,

Tests are won by teams and not neccessarily by indviduals - but in some extremely rare cases individuals do win tests and matches making them exceptional players - Sacha is such an exceptional case. Pollard is not.- he showed some such tendencies in the first test he played in against the AB's in 2014 when he scored two tries and kicked his goals - but then Meyer tried to force him into losing his indivdual capabailities by forcing him into being a dud fly-half like Morne Steyn and he did not regularly play in tests again until Lambie failed agains the Japanese in 2015.

He never played in 2016 and 2017 for the Springboks - mainly due to injuries - and was finally brougt back into the team in 2018 where he became his own player again and flourished under Erasmus' coaching. When asked who made the greatest contribution to his rugby playing career his answer was simple - Erasmus, That is what makes Erasmus a differet category coach from anyone we ever had as coach of the Springboks before - streets ahead of the other Springbok coaches, The other coach whose career was cut short by cancer was Christie, For the rest we had relatively poor or mediocre coaches since 1992, The only one who made an individual cntribution other than that was Du Plessis - who in his short terrm as coach changed the style of play and built a team that was inheirited by Mallett and used by him in winning 16 tests in a row - but went off the rails when he had to replace plaers brought into the team by Du Plessis and played a dfferent style of rugby to the try-deficient peformances of te team.

Since 2007 3 coaches were fired by their clubs and ranchises because they were incompetent and those three were White (twice). Meyer and Coetzee. All three was also effectively fred by SARU as Springbk coaches because in the end incompetence led to decline in rugby performances of the teams they coached.

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Well said Moz, spot on.

Geez what is it then?? First you say individuals can’t win a test and then they are capable of winning a test alone??

But not Pollard only SFM?? What are you Smoking Uncle??…Pollard was definitely the Boks catalyst for the 23 World Cup Victory!!

Without him we would have never won….FACT … So Rassie made our Forwards strong again and now he is riding on that and Lady Luck until the cows come home.

The only problem is that the other top teams are to close for comfort which causes every game to be a grind.

Sooner than later this grind will not be good enough and his luck will run out.

We do need more to set us apart from the rest and even with Brown there, it’s not happening fast enough.

This season will be a true test for the Boks and Rassie+….will we be prepared with more weapons in our arsenal or is it again predominantly Stampkar delux and Luck ??

Also now everyone knows that you can spell uncle Mike, so keep it that way:)

Well no one is saying we are miles ahead of the pack - the top sides are all pretty close, with the Boks slightly edging it - thanks in a large part to our coach

We’ve beaten NZ by 1 point but we’ve also thumped them

The edge the Boks have is the belief in themselves that they can win a game when it’s down to the wire - that is thanks to their coach and the mindset he has instilled in them

Beating France, England and NZ by 1 point in a matter of days is testament to that

Mpower

Indiovidials of Sacha's qualiy is as rare as hen's teeth. He is a far better player than Polalrd ever was and a more accurate goal kicker as well. But that is not the issue here - Mozart is talking utter BS about Erasmus and so are you a well.

Pollard said two things which you lot prefer to ignore - because you seems to think Polard is an idiot because you choose to ignore and those two tatements:-

1. Pollard said Erasmus as coach restored his rugby playing career and he was the best caoch he ever playe under. He said Ersmus asked him to make suggestions on how to improve backline play and acted onm his sugestionns,
2. Pollard said De Allende no 12 he ever played with and that included De Villiers as well,

What is basically ignored is that Erasmus started a program for coach develpment and on that list is Pollard, Kolisi and Willie, They wil be playing less tests in future and learn coaching development from Erasmus n d Browne as well. You should know that coaches in the four major franchises are grossly deficient as coaches and a coaching development program is as important as a player development program .

By the ay with Willemse available he would play aas inside center in the July tests and in support n the ebch is likely to be Kriel and Hooker. I think Esterhuizen played himself out of contention when he buggered up badly and got red carded and banned last year, There is in fact ample proof that Sacha and De Allende played well together on test level and you people deliberately ignored that fact as well.

I stated it before if Mozart and co select te team there would be no WC and RC torphies won by Springboks. I heard that Erasmus salary Is R15,3 million year. If e was after money no rgby playing country would pay him that amount in dolars because eh si ears ahead of any othet coach in the werld at present = so live with it,

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You have zero evidence to support shit like "the grind wil run out" In 2024 the Springboks sscoed more tries than any other tp ten team - and that did not indicate a grind. Of th team f the year in 2024 t players were Springboks.

So what the hell is the rinmd you are peaking about? There is no such thing like luck in the game of rugby - zilch, Rugby is a hard game to play and luck has zero to with the game as a whole. So you also beleive in sot that luck is al that is needed and coaching is not essential, hat a load of abtshit that represents.

What he ehll is the armoury you are talking abut, S tampkar si a fer better and aster player that deadhead Esterhuizen is - so find some other player - and the answer is Willemse and not tining deficient AE. In the emantime world experts rate De A llende as the bst 12 in the world - while idiots think therwise. .

ehll is the armoury…..there I was thinking aster was the armoury

SFM is a Great Player, but he has not proven himself like Pollard has.

What a insult saying that he is far better than pollard?!

Does he have the potential to be a great player like Pollard?? Yes he does, but like I said before, he still has to prove himself on the big stage over and over again, like pollard.

What a dumb statement to make, get a grip ….Armoury is a metaphor for skills for crying out loud.

Our Backline play needs serious upgrades….Using predominantly forwards play will always result in us grinding a game out.

The reason for that is we don’t have extra skills to set ourselves apart from the rest of the top teams…

That is why WC 23 was so close and had three one point victories.

Also all the circumstances that came together for Pollard to join and win us the WC, is nothing more than LUCK AND HEAPS OF IT.

Everything Moz has said in his post makes sense but definitely not for Erasmus groupies like yourself.

Just by the way it’s absolutely infuriating that a person must spent some time decoding your post because of the very bad grammar and spelling.

Have some respect for your fellow posters and write properly so a person can understand this Alien language you write.

Are we now lecturing octogenarians about their posting prowess?

It’s a request, as Uncle Mike has clearly proven that he is more than capable of writing perfectly fine.

So if he writes, where almost no one can understand, it’s either on purpose to provoke or a genuine problem does come up.

Which is it then?? CM does not clarify why that happens. Yes the uncle is old, but unluckily that does not excuse him from everything.

Just bye the way you have the nerve to preach to me….

when others on here are borderline psychopaths and carry on 10 times worse with older people?!

I don’t see you reprimanding them, but rather approve and back them…

So practice what you preach and stop being a suck up…Thank you very much !!

50% of Draad’s mission on here is to protect Clever….I sometimes think they are related. Are you a Saaiman Draadtjie?

Mpower

There is referance between thinking rugby and decisionmaking to deterrmine instntly on what to do to maximum benefit of the team - he was vey good when eh came out - but eas normally usefd by the Bulls at 12, Meyer also got hold of him amd tried to turn him into a kicking dummy like dear Morne used to be - Mozart considered him to br a top flyahlf so a great supporter of flyhalfs being kicking dummiesmmy was much admired by Mozart. Morne remain a dunce player capable to make goal kicks and for the rest an out of hand kicker that was known for making aimless kicks and nothing more, Under Meyer backline play was forbidden and if backline players score tries it was through idividual efforts,

Having Meyer as coach Pollard was nearly destroyed by Meyer - he was in and out of the starting line-up of the Springboks until the Japan disaster during the WK, However - Meyer did not want a flyhalf to be a pivot in backline play and the only balls passed to Pollard was when he had to make relieving kicks, His goalkicking was good - the rest of the matches he was turned into a kicking dummy and receiving the ball from the scrummie was a rarity, After a brilliant performance against the AB's in 2014 he did nhing in test rugby since he was not allowed to do anything by Meyer,

In 2016 and 2017 Pollard played no test rugby and gained nothing from coaching. Soon after Rassie was appointed he called up Pollard to the squad and after lenghty discusssion in which Pollard was asked to explain how he sees the role of a flyhalf was approved by Erasmus and spend days on training how to get the shit from Meyer out of his system. One of his own ideas was to use himself and De Allende to launch backline attacks and during 2018 he became a much improved player. He afterwards said that Erasmus saved his playing career and that De A llende is the best center he ever played with.

So what is the real position as to Pollard/ performances, He is definitely a good flyhalf with moderate tryscoring record. In his first test in 2014 he scored 2 tries - since 2014 he scored only 5 tries and cotribnuted well to backline attacks where De Allende was his partner and togetther they launched many springbok backline tries, However - unlike Sacha Pollard is not a player making instant decisions that change he flow of the game. There is no dount he is an excellent goal kicking but he dioes not have the flair already shown by Sacha in test last year, Pollard does not have the pace comparable to Sacha, The latter has already shown he is a much bigger threat to opposition players than Po;atrd is.

Pollard is one of the players Erasmus believe would make good coaches and is learning a lot from Erasmus.- he will be sparngly used in future tests to take him through t the 2027 RWC since Pollard is also ijury prone and take a long time to recover,

Pollard will tell you exactly what I wrote above sine it is based on comments he himself made, If you ask him about Erasmus and tell him what you write on site he would just laugh at you because he would regard what you wrote is idiocy and he would tell you poltely that you have missed th boat completely/ He is a polite gentleman and wi;; not insut you by telling what he really think about the BS you write on site,

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Mozart

Draad and I have one thing in common - we recognize the BS you write on site and the reponse is from both of us on the same issues as a ressult. ,

Hy klink na jou broerskind? En julle praat all twee baie strond

Uncle Mike I am definitely not going to argue that SFM has X Factor. He is a very gifted player.

That being said, he needs to still play quite a lot to reach the Consistency of Pollard.

Up till now Pollard has proven without a reasonable doubt, that his BMT is world class.

SFM has showed glimpses of a very good BMT and with time at the helm he might be able to surpass all expectations and more.

Ou Mozzie...Maaik is no relation of mine, I've never met him in person and I don’t know him outside this forum...and it's stront, not strond...en jy praat meer stront as ek, ou Maaik en die res saam...and I don’t protect Ou Maaik, I just provide a bit of context at times...for a so called mathematician your logic lets you down more than you realize.

"Just bye the way you have the nerve to preach to me…."

Wasn't preaching, asked a question...and you lot on Maaik's back all the time is p!$$!ng me off no end...sies!

Come on DB you are over reacting. I think CM appreciates the fact that we engage with him….

He is much tougher than you think and doesn’t always need you pampering him…

If you take Moz for example, he is close to CM,s age but gets abused much more, wouldn’t you say??

But I never see you standing up for him and therein lies your problem.

You should apply a uniform standard for all our older poster’s. DB,s protecting order for all :)

Waaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha!

Well yes, I agree Moffie needs a lot of protection . . . even if the doddering old fool doesn't recognise it himself.

Let's protect our octagenarians . . . Moffie, ou Maaik and let's not forget fArt who also needs a lot of protection.

LMAO!

"If you take Moz for example, he is close to CM,s age but get abused much more, wouldn’t you say??"

No he doesn't...he and Rudehole has their hate thing going for the last 2 decades and I've called Rudehole out on a lot of his stuff ...you see, I try to play the ball not the man...if I don't agree with some of your views on rugby, it's not an attack on your person...some people on this site can't get past that...don't fall in the same trap.

"Let's protect our octagenarians (sic). . . Moffie, ou Maaik and let's not forget fArt who also needs a lot of protection.

LMAO!

Laugh all you like, you're closer to 80 than you'd care to admit...and Athur has more class in his pinky than you could ever dream of...

Squeaky, I'm 18 years away from being an octogenarian, chump.

I presume Broerskind is throwing in (sic) because you are so uneducated that you once insisted on using it inside quotation marks.

ROFL!

Another barefaced lie from the drunken old fool who claims he never lies.

We all know you said exactly that….you also said this:

There's just too much that Gabriel Garcia Marquez leaves up to the imagination to allow a fair comparison but the fact that the last 50% of the book was condensed into the last 10% of the series should tell you how much of the series to take into consideration when measuring this great work.

ROFL!

The difference between Rooi and every other poster here is this. Rooi barely sees a need to log in unless he has some stupid attack on someone to carry out.

Literally everybody here sees the banter/fights as secondary.

It's Rooi's primary.

A total loser.

Plum

Let me tell you something about provincialism in SA Rugby. I finished my matric examinations on 6 December 1960 and took a train to Pretoria where I started work on 14 December 1960. Those days there was no flights anybody could take so I got on the train in Mosselbaai and arrived in Pretoria a day and a half later,

I was met in Pretoria station by a bloke I know and with whom I played school boy rugby - he became a fierce Bulls supporter while in Pretoria and he immedately said he hoped I am not a traitor who support WP as a rugby team. I was not a WP supporter coming from the South Western Districts area and supported the local privncial team. I found the environment totally poisoned by provincialism and I learned more about it within succeding months and years.

Needless to say - I became a WP supporter as a result and when WP played the Bulls in what was a CC final in 1964 - a friiend of mine who was a student at Stellenbosch Univercity and a qualified Forestry official went to the match. He was using his Stellenbosch University blazer and I asked and used his Matie cap. When going onto the pavillion we were met with a continuous "naartjie": attack and that continued for a while. Needles to say in the end the hated Jannie Engelbrecht with a broken collar bone scored 2 tries and the WP won the match. By the last 20 minutes the pavillion became empty before the end of the match.

I left Pretoria in 1974 and was promoted to a post in Dyurban and there became a Sharks supporter and was neutral when WP later on the Stormers played Natal - later on the Sharks, .

So in the period mentioned by Mallett provincalism entailed a scenario where hatred of WP in Transvaal was basically poisonous . I can emember a rather drunk supporter who was urinating against a wall when elaving he match and whe was quite drunk. So when we askd him why he did so his reponse was. "We Piss against the wall'.- there were 12 WP players in the Springbok team that day and they lost the test,

Another funny incident was also invovling a fanatic Bulls supporter, We had to attend a Budgetary meeting two days before Easter weekend in 1981 and could not get a train or air booking and had to travel by car, On returning from Petoria there were a farm with hundreds of dried out cow shit - so we picked up samples and took it with us for obvious dubious reasons. We put a sample in an ashtray on the desk of a senior Free State supporting official on fire amd called it Free State Myrrh. It had some nasty consequences - the inside of the office had to be repainted, The remander we parcelled up by a huge number of covers put it in a box and on the bottom of the box put a note - the Bulls lost a match against the Sharks the previous week - the Note reads "This is all that remains of the mighty Blue Bulls", At the time security was a problem - their was a bomb blast in the building I worked in few months earlier, The Pretoria offical did not expect a parcel from Drban - so he clled the Police and they opened the box for him and found the cow shit and note.

I can tell you a real true story abut that bomb blast as well - but this is not the thread for such a discussion, ..

So what Mallett said was mild - on the ground it was even worse than they claimed it was, LOL

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