Rassie: England pays Bok stars R400m and it’s a win for SA Rugby

After famously leading the Springboks to the 2019 Rugby World Cup title, Rassie Erasmus has moved into a new role as director of rugby, and oversaw the famous 2-1 series win against the British & Irish Lions last year.

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Erasmus recently served out one portion of a lengthy ban handed down to him by World Rugby after his infamous refereeing video became public last year, but he has increasingly begun to speak out in the public domain.

He has now started a first-hand column for the UK’s Sportsmail, where he has made a host of interesting comments, and below you can catch up on all his key insights.

Notably, he highlighted the logic behind allowing players to head abroad and remain available for national selection.

“People say South Africa are stupid for allowing our players to leave. Is it stupid? Look at England, there are six or seven South African players taking the places of young English players at Premiership clubs. For us, it’s wonderful. Among about 32 players we are looking at, they’re probably earning 400 million rand that doesn’t have to come off our accounts. Meanwhile, back in South Africa, we have the next South African lock coming through because there is no financial incentive for players to come here. Is it good for England that Faf de Klerk is starting ahead of Raffi Quirke at Sale? No. Is it good for South Africa? Yes, it works for us.”

Erasmus also touched on Six Nations winners France who are now second in the World Rugby rankings and looking like favourites for the World Cup next year.

“Everybody can see that France are red hot. Everybody knows France are the favourites. Everybody can see Antoine Dupont is a bull terrier. I can’t wait to see him against Faf de Klerk. France’s coach Fabien Galthie spent a week with me at Munster. He would come in at 6am and he would play soccer barefoot with the college kids at lunch. There was passion in the man. I knew he was a smart coach.”

The SA director of rugby also spoke highly of England and coach Eddie Jones.

“England are getting a lot of criticism but they will be strong at the World Cup. Don’t tell me Eddie has suddenly become a bad coach. He is a good rugby man who texted me when I was in trouble with World Rugby. I admire him in a weird kind of way. I don’t agree with all of his strategies in the media but that’s not to say I’m right and he’s wrong. He made a lot of changes to his team recently but I’m sure he has a plan for the World Cup.”

Finally, he touched on the Boks’ links to the Six Nations, suggesting it would only happen if the tournament was expanded to seven teams.

“Italy beating Wales obviously closed a lot of arguments about them being kicked out of the Six Nations. Let’s hope they go from strength to strength now, then it’s great for rugby. I would still love to see South Africa in the Six Nations, but I think that would only be a scenario if the competition expanded to seven teams.”

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Rassie has recently said coaching England would be “amazing”

Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Rassie Erasmus recently spoke about the possibility of perhaps one day coaching England, and didn’t rule out that prospect.

However, England Rugby CEO Bill Sweeney is said to be focused on rewarding homegrown coaches in the search for Jones’ successor.

“The preference would be to have an English set-up,” Sweeney said. “We believe we’ve got such a wealth of English coaches in the game.

“As a leading rugby nation we should be developing English coaches and an English style of play.”

Conor O’Shea, the RFU director of performance rugby, echoed these sentiments.

“The plan will be to appoint that coach before summer 2023,” O’Shea said. “Whether that’s embedding them into the programme or taking a helicopter view, that’s a discussion to be had.

“We have so many top English coaches who are in a great position. Eddie has worked with Steve, Neal [Hatley], Gussy [Paul Gustard]. You look across the Premiership and then you see the quality of people overseas. I want them to be English and I believe it should be.”

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