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09 Sept 2021, 17:47
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09 Sept 2021, 17:47#1
Erasmus-Nienaber combination still misunderstood
By Brenden Nel
09 September 2021 | 10:02
Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber © Gallo Images
It’s been more than three years on. A Rugby Championship, a World Cup and a Lions series win. And still the overseas press contingent struggle to get their heads around how Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber work together.
Questions abounded this week again with Erasmus back in South Africa and Nienaber in Australia with the Springbok team.
Just how does it work? Is he involved? Do you talk? The questions continued. But what they were saying in an undertone was simple - can you coach the team without Rassie by your side?
In a way it is understandable. Erasmus has cast such a huge shadow over the Boks over the past few years that many fear him leaving.
And others, especially abroad, are way too willing to write off Nienaber without giving him a chance.
Yet anyone close to the Bok team in the past few years will easily tell you how the two are joined at the hip. How the bromance is more than just a working relationship. How Erasmus and Nienaber almost share the same brain.
If nothing else, their outlook is the same. It has been shaped by their destiny together, their journey that started years ago in Bloemfontein, and which has led them across the world.
RASSIE KEEPING CONTROL?
It was no surprise to those close to the team that Erasmus wanted Nienaber to be his successor after the World Cup.
But it was no surprise to hear the conspiracy theories either. Was this just Rassie keeping control of the team via a long arm? Even Clive Woodward jumped in during the Lions series, suggesting Erasmus give Nienaber “the space to coach” and not be so involved.
The naivety would be laughable if it wasn’t so transparent. Woodward was expressing a hope that fracturing the two would lead to the Boks demise. That taking Erasmus out of the equation would mean Nienaber would be hopeless on his own.
But as they had done throughout their careers, the two worked hand in hand. As Erasmus plotted the Boks journey back to the top, it was Nienaber who was his defensive guru. It was Nienaber who communicated with the players on the field.
Suddenly when the Boks reversed roles and continued their continuity, there was a massive outcry. How could Erasmus be a water carrier? But it was a simple continuation of the synergy that has existed for years between the two.
It wasn’t a surprise then that Erasmus stayed away after the Lions series and took a break, returning to his family while the Boks moved to Port Elizabeth.
It was a test. Could the team run smoothly without him, and would it work if he wasn’t to go to Australia with them?
A solid 32-12 victory and lessons learnt behind the scenes paid off for the coaching team, and the management and players are in such a comfort zone that Erasmus’ geographical difference makes no difference either.
Nienaber has the respect of the players, and has played a massive role in getting them to this point. So why should he still have to prove his credentials.
Even now, Erasmus sits in the meetings in an advisory role. And why should it matter? If the team feels that what works for them, then they have the right to use all the intellectual property they can get their hands on.
It is true Erasmus has other duties, but the entire videogate saga made it a wise choice to stay and not face a constant barrage of questions that would overshadow the tournament.
Once again, as in the video, Erasmus took one for the team. Anyone outside the environment would struggle to understand. But speak to the players and they have no issues with how things are run.
'WE OPERATE DIFFERENTLY'
As Nienaber put it on Tuesday when being confronted with Erasmus’ absence, there is nothing normal about their relationship.
It doesn’t fit the neat little boxes of coach and assistant coach. Even back when they were coaching in the Currie Cup, it was a synergy that made them interchangeable. The understanding between the two is on another level.
“The key thing between myself and Rassie on a personal level is that we operate a little bit differently than the normal director of rugby, head coach. Even when he was head coach, I was an assistant coach,” Nienaber explains.
“We operate a little bit differently and the best way to describe that is we are not confined by our job titles. Being director of rugby almost puts you in a box and you operate in that scope, but we don’t work like that. We know between the two of us, I have got certain responsibilities and Rassie has got certain responsibilities but in all my responsibilities he gives input.
“Not only him but the other coaching staff, the medical staff as well and vice-versa with Rassie, he will have certain aspects that he is responsible for but I will give him input. In that sense, it sounds weird but our life is going on between myself and him as per normal. He is engaging with our team as per normal.”
WORLD IS SO MUCH SMALLER
Erasmus has adapted his day to the Australian time zones and sits in all management meetings and team meetings. He gives his input and studies the video footage of the training. And there is a determination to succeed that lies deep within both.
A passion to ensure the Boks stay at the top is the baseline both operate from.
“The one positive about Covid is that technology has made the world small. You can be inside somebody else’s living room within ten seconds. We go through the same weekly programme and structure that we would have done if he was here (in Australia) and hats off to him in terms of almost flipping his day and night around to fit in with our schedule… for me literally sitting here it’s business as usual in terms of our working relationship.”
Nienaber was at pains to explain Erasmus isn’t the key to the team functioning. He is an integral part, but his absence doesn’t make the Boks any less professional.
“Let’s say, he has got director of rugby stuff that he has got to adhere to, sometimes he won’t go with us to training sessions, he won’t travel with us on the bus to Test matches on the day. He will come a little bit later because he has got some stuff that he is responsible for from a director of rugby point of view.
“He has been with us the majority of the time but there have been aspects where he hasn’t been part of. That Test match against Argentina, he wasn’t there the whole week but he was with us virtually online. But this will be the first time he is not with us on tour since 2018 that we have been travelling together.”
And therein lies the rub.
Nienaber has been left to focus on the rugby, preparing the team and facing the media. The Boks are in a good space, and whether Erasmus is there or not, the same high standards are expected of the team and management.
Some will always see Nienaber sitting in Erasmus’ shadow. His personality makes him a lot less inclined to the limelight, but inside the team structures, his voice carries a lot of weight.
So the questions will continue.
But for the Springboks, the only interest is if the system is working or not. And if they are achieving their goals.
Right now the Erasmus-Nienaber combination works.
And it doesn’t need them on the same continent to prove it.
