The Springboks used an interesting communication system against Scotland. Photo: Twitter/x
Revealed: Why Springboks are using ‘traffic lights’ system
The Springboks have explained why they deployed an eye-catching communication system to relay messages from the coaches box.
The Springboks used an interesting communication system against Scotland. Photo: Twitter/x
During Sunday night’s World Cup win over Scotland, Bok boss Rassie Erasmus and assistant coach Felix Jones caught the attention of the cameras by communicating from the Springboks’ coaches box using coloured lights.
It immediately brought back memories of Erasmus famously used similar tactics during his days as head coach of the Free State Cheetahs over a decade ago.
At the time, Erasmus became renowned for using coloured cards and then colour-coded lamps on top of the Free State Stadium to communicate with his players.
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When it came to the Springboks on Sunday, the Springboks insisted there was nothing illegal in what they were doing, and coach Jacques Nienaber insisted that it was primarily used for injury and substitution-related communication.
“In terms of the lights, it started when we played the French in Marseille last year. With this dome, the sound is phenomenal, you can’t hear people,” he said.
“Because there are lots of channels during the match where we communicate, it’s difficult in that atmosphere to talk to our support staff. A lot of teams will have a system to certain aspects, like, for example, how serious is the injury? Is it just a knock? That type of communication.”
“It’s like using hand signals. You don’t need permission from World Rugby. I was still at Munster when we employed a similar system,” said Nienaber.
“The light would be red if it’s a serious thing and one must consider a substitution. Amber tells the support staff to give a guy another five or ten minutes to see if he’s okay. Green obviously means go-on. We did it in Ireland in 2016-17 too.
“It’s an easy way of communicating instructions because, with the stadium noise, the radio channels can get consumed by medical talk. We really just use it for injuries or substitutions.
“There’s nothing tactical or technical about it.”
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