Rassie Erasmus back at Saru House

Rassie Erasmus officially started work at SA Rugby on Monday following an 18-month stint in Ireland and walked in to an office still reeling after a series of setbacks.

Erasmus will take on the role of director of rugby‚ which was the position he held before taking on the Munster job last June.

Long-time assistant and defence coaching guru Jacques Nienaber is also back at work at SA Rugby‚ having been part of Erasmus’ coaching staff at Munster.

Erasmus will immediately set about a complete review of rugby structures in SA while Nienaber was back at work last week already.

After losing the Rugby World Cup 2023 bid and also seeing the Springboks limp from a record defeat in any match (57-0) against the All Blacks two months ago to a record defeat (38-3) against Ireland a week ago‚ the game needs a boost and Erasmus might just bring it.

His stint with Munster was a successful one.

He left as the Pro 14 competitions’ most successful coach after overseeing 21 wins in 26 matches (81%)‚ which beat the record of 75% held by current Ireland coach Joe Schmidt when he was in charge of Leinster.

Apart from overseeing SA Rugby’s eight national teams‚ Erasmus will also manage the development of players‚ coaches and referees.

“It’s a pleasure to welcome back Rassie and Jacques into the SA Rugby family and we know they’ll add real value to our rugby department and the development of the game in South Africa‚” said SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux.

“They have more than 25 years’ worth of coaching experience between them and will be a great asset to our game here‚ on many different levels.”

Roux said that the pair would spend the rest of the year in planning for 2018 and would not be directly involved with any national team until the New Year.