Zebo on Rassie

Ex-Ireland star Simon Zebo has stated Rassie Erasmus is the best coach he has ever had and predicted that he would lead the Springboks to glory.

The 35-year-old played under the current South Africa head honcho when the two were together at Munster in 2016 and 2017.

It was only a short spell, with Erasmus leaving the Irish province to take up the director of rugby role with the Boks, but he had a lasting impression on Zebo.

‘Old school’ Rassie

“Rassie would be number one for sure, he’s the best coach I’ve ever had. I loved him,” the former Ireland back three player told talkSPORT Ireland.

“We had a bad culture for a year or two at Munster and when Rassie came in that got put to bed very fast.

“I miss that old school just say it how it is, no bs, there are no players second guessing or thinking, ‘does he like me?’ And trying to be little political animals.”

Zebo was joined on the What the Ruckpodcast by fellow ex-Ireland and Munster team-mate Dave Kilcoyne, who revealed how Erasmus got everyone into line.

“I remember we played I think it was Cardiff – it could have been Rassie’s first game over – and I looked at the phone in the morning and it said: ‘You’ve been added to the group, Virus’. And then I saw all the names being added. It was like, ‘Jesus, this is mad’,” Kilcoyne said.

“We went in and I remember Rassie when he came in after the loss and he saw people congregating in the corner, giving out, bitching, moaning and blaming.

“He was so emotionally intelligent that he was seeing certain things. This could have happened before a few times and he was looking around as to what happened, so we all got added to this group on the Monday.

“He flogged us on that Monday. It was eight or nine in the morning and he gave a big meeting about the idea of the ‘virus’, which is if you don’t take ownership or accountability, and you’re going to pull another fella down with you, that’s where the deadwood term comes in.

“After that he started getting rid of fellas, and he changed the whole culture.”

‘Good cop, bad cop’

Erasmus was joined at Munster by Jacques Nienaber and they were described by Kilcoyne as “good cop, bad cop”, and Zebo felt that those two would have led the Irish side to Champions Cup glory.

“He had a huge influence on all of us, not just me, even players who didn’t really like him or get selected by him, they had an unbelievable amount of respect for him,” the ex-wing and full-back said.

“I’ve never seen anybody who is as good a coach, from being a tactician to empowering or instilling belief in players.

“Him and Jacques Nienaber together were an amazing duo.

“With my Munster hat on, I never wanted him to leave, I thought he would take us to the holy grail.”

It was therefore no surprise for Zebo to see how much success Erasmus has had with the Springboks having played a key role in their back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes.

“I knew straight away, if he had the talent pool like South Africa had with their size, there’s no way they wouldn’t win a World Cup with him there,” he added.

“I think my uncle won a few bob as South Africa were in a bad spot when Rassie took over.

“Irrespective of the main team, the generation coming up below, the talent now that they have at their disposal, oh my goodness, I think they’re going to be the new All Blacks where for 20 or 30 years, or maybe longer, no one could touch them.”

Dave

I don't know whether you saw what Mozart wrote about intense fislike of Erasmus, In 2007 Erasmus was invited to be an assistant coach in the 2007 RWC. H e stayed with the squad fir a month After a month wih the squad Eramus left Fance without giving any reason for his decision to leave. So Mozart claimed Erasmus for letting White down,

Everytime something positive about Erasmus a a coach - he went on attack, The fact is Mozrt dod not know what caused Erasmus to leave - he did not want to know, Looking at what happened In the case of he Brumbies where he tore up his contract with the Brumbies because he did not get the Australia Head Coach job - it started to understand to understand what the case related to coachin g really was. The interest of e teams he coached easd nothing 0 the case of White was all that couubted,

But then it also came out that in a book written by Smit that the senior players in th 2007 RWC squad had a real dislike of White was intense and none of the players suympathied with White because his contract was not renewed by SARU, I as in 2014 living in a small coastal village 65 kilometers I had season tickets at Kingspart and had contact with a number of players and other people linkd to the team and thet hated what White did to the players, The Sharks used to play entertaining rugby using all 16 players - they became a 10 man team with no game plan for the backline, After Steyn returned from France in 2012 - th slim and athletic Steyn was rossly overweight and a total grossl overweight slow and a total wreck a a center, In 2012 the Sharks reached the Super Rugby Final, In the 2013 in the Super Rgby series the Sharks lost the first 4 matches played - and the main problem was Frans Steyn. So Plumree dropped him from the team for most matches in the series,

So Plumtree got fired as coach at th end of 2013 Plumtree was fired as the Sharks coach and Whte appomted, In 2014 White convinced Smit - then Director of Rugby - that he ahs earned from esperience and Smit ptomoted his appoinment, Things did not work out like Smit hoped, In fact it got worse. He openly started to divide the team through using home language as a means to divide the players. He sacked the hihly-respected Keegan Daniel as Sharks Captain and Frans Steyn became his favorite in the team. It took the situation barely three months before ream spurut in the team took its toll and omne of the orst losses wasagainst te Highlanders in the Round Robin and

stage was reched in the media that the players were unhapp as theyr were treated like school boys and they hated White. Things were bad - but some the Sharks tuwned up on the log and has to play the Highlanders again in the Quarterfinals the S harks managed to beat the Hglanders and had to play the rusaders in the semifinal - lost by 38-3. By then the Sharks situation was bad 16 of the Dharks Players had to renew their contacts - they all refused to son the contracts while White was the ccoach, Smit as Director of Rugby told White he ould sign a lette that he resign as Head Coacxh or if he does not he will be fired,

next job wa at Montpelloer where the situation eas the same as happened in the case of the Sharks a the end of his secong teasr as coach, Same story as hapepnd this year, Maybe i as worse thuus year because as you mentioned the Assistant Coachess even refused tio joun Whitej in th e oching job,

When Mozart wrote h disliked Erasmus becaue he let down White in 2007 - it became clear to me hy Rtasmus left in 2007. White enver hadf game plans - he treated boh the coaching staff and the players like shit and he ould never accept any proposals to the contrary Erasmus would make, Erasmus left bcause staying on in the toxic enviroment environment surrounding White it would be a waste of time to stay on n a toxic environment.

So expecg the BS to flow aga after posting the above,

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Let’s cut through the gormless speculation:

Timeline:

Some time late April 2007 Erasmus is appointed assistant coach.

July 20 2007 WP announces that Erasmus is appointed Stormers coach.

July 25 Erasmus meets with his sports representative and announces he is withdrawing from the Springbok team.

The conclusion is obvious.

Mozart

Your conclusion is BS, The fact is that it has happened clearly and that White was a shit person to work with. Your conclusion has been proven to happen repeatedly subsequently and in the case of the Sharks, Montpellier and the Bulls and confirmed the real charactarestic of Whte as a coach -

1. no game plan for matches - that alone would have let Erasmus to realize he has no point in staying on - since he effectively had no real objective to deal with and whatsoever his assisrants suggested being ignored, ;
2. fractured relationshp between the coach and the players - the worst possible deficiency any coach can have,
3. publicly attacking the players after lost matches,

Erasmus never said a word while he left the set up in 2007. But in 2005. and 2006 the Cheetahs won the CC an that was the result of a totally different brand of rugby played, The Bulls played 10 man rugby the Cheetahs not so. Meyer was the same brand as White.

The above happened subsequently not once - not twice - but three times in respect of teams White coached, The same reasons repeatedly, Every reasonable person would realize that when there are problems in relationships between the coach and his assistants and between the coach and the players then it may happen that the coach is the problem - not anybody else,

That was the case when he was effectively fired by SARU - followed by the Sharks, Montpellier and the Bulls. All for the same reasons. The case of the Bulls was that the team effectively is owned by Rupert and Motsepe with 74,5% shareholding and massive investments in the funding . They appointed Brits to manage their rugby investment in the case of the Bulls and in for instance Sacha and Willemse, . I assume that Rupert and Motsepe are better businesmen than you are - they are both dollar billionaires - and real businesmen would consider what happened in the case of the Bulls and fired White based on sound business principles.

If you chose to ignore what effectively happened in 2007, 2013, 2017 and 2025 then you must be wronig and not you being right and everbody else involved in management of the teams being wrong, Really an amazing situation.

To then start a hate and demeaning campaign to belittle one of the two coaches who coached the teams winning RWC's twice and carry on like you did is not logical and in fact foolish.

Nobody with any objectivity will not make statements about undermining White as a reason for a campaign against Erasnus nust be prehjudiced to an amazing extent.

But your hate campaigns against players are also based on prejudice and petty hatred, Your admission as to Erasmus also explained while your campaign against players like Du Toit should be disregarded as being based on BS,

At least you explain to site members that a degree of prejudiced bordered on hatred is behind your attacks on Erasmus and some players. It has nothing to do with peformances and everything to do with BS,

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