The greatest coaches or managers in sport have one thing consistent: they are willing to change before the fact and not wait until after the result. Rassie Erasmus, a back-to-back World Cup winner, is among this elite group of the world’s best sporting coaches.
Erasmus, as a player and a manager, has won acclaim for innovation — but equally it is his ability to back himself, his belief system and the way to get the ultimate result, which in the case of the Springboks is the World Cup title.
For Erasmus, like all great coaches/managers, it is a case of "my way or the highway". This is a positive because it emphasises conviction and a willingness to risk being fired if the "my way" does not come with the highway to success.
Erasmus’ Boks and Richie McCaw’s All Blacks both have the distinction of back-to-back titles, but now Erasmus wants to go where no team has gone before: he wants the three-peat
Erasmus has always been willing to die by the sword he lives by, and the way he wields that sword has not always won him a popularity contest. Then again, popularity contests don’t guarantee World Cup success, and as the professional game of rugby continues to evolve, the Holy Grail is now most definitely the World Cup.
Traditional tours, like the British & Irish Lions, will always be special. The pending Springboks vs All Blacks in tour form will make for amazing rugby and further strengthen the bond between the sport’s two greatest and most successful nations. The two share seven of the 10 World Cup titles.
But it is the World Cup that now matters above all else in professional rugby — and Erasmus, in his first media briefings of the year, was emphatic that his goal would be an unprecedented three World Cup titles in succession.
Erasmus’ Boks and Richie McCaw’s All Blacks have the distinction of back-to-back titles, but now Erasmus wants to go where no team has gone before: he wants the three-peat.
Erasmus conceded that to prepare a team for that peak in Australia in 2027, there would be big calls made on players and on strategic approach. He knows he must take a squad to Australia that can win in multiple ways. He also knows that he must risk and experiment along the way. He must try different combinations and with that risk comes the possibility of results not always going his way.
He will take comfort that each time Siya Kolisi hoisted the World Cup trophy into the heavens, in Japan in 2019 and in France in 2023, what played out in one-off internationals in between became an afterthought.
Erasmus, when he took charge of the Springboks in 2018, had three goals: beat the All Blacks in New Zealand, win the World Cup in 2019 and beat the British & Irish Lions in South Africa.
The Lions don’t come again to South Africa for 10 years, so that one is done and dusted for Erasmus. When he appointed Jacques Nienaber to coach the Boks in 2020 under his direction as national director of rugby, the only priority was winning the World Cup in 2023.
The beating of the All Blacks in New Zealand and winning the 2019 World Cup was also ticked off.
If Erasmus’ match-day squads know how to play the clutch moments in the most important World Cup playoff matches, then the coach knows how to play the clutch moments in selection, be it of players or coaches, and he knows how to innovate and find a way to win.
Erasmus has always acknowledged that the players he picks may not necessarily be considered the form or best player in that position, but his counter is that he picks individuals who speak to the culture of the squad, those who put the squad first and those who complement each other, on and off the field. That makes them the best fit for his vision to win World Cup titles.
When you win World Cup titles, you get to go again — and Erasmus in the next four years will get to do it all over again. For that the rugby-loving Bok supporters must be grateful, even if they won’t always agree with the master coach that is Rassie Erasmus.
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