Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber. Photo: Video screenshots.
BOK AD BRILLIANCE: The traffic lights origin story… featuring teenage Rassie and Jacques
A hilarious new advert — featuring Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber as teenagers — has been released, explaining where the Springboks’ brains trust got the idea for their use of traffic lights and it’s a laugh a minute!
Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber. Photo: Video screenshots.
Rassie Erasmus and assistant coach Felix Jones caught the attention of the cameras by communicating from the Springboks’ coaches box using coloured traffic lights. This unique method of on-field communication has fans and critics alike buzzing with opinions.
Revealed: Why Springboks are using ‘traffic lights’ system
Of course, the use of the traffic lights 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.
ALSO READ: Rassie Erasmus’ ‘Disco Lights’ strategy — Innovation or distraction?
It is now secret that Erasmus and Nienaber are long-time best friends and their shared history started way before they ventured into rugby and ultimately ended up as coaching colleagues.
Taking all of the above information into consideration, the marketing brains of Switch Energy (one of the Springboks’ sponsors) produced this masterful ad explaining where the traffic light idea originated from and it is hilarious.
A hilarious new advert features a young Rassie Erasmus using lights to help his friend Jacques Nienaber with the answers to an test at school.
ALSO READ: Rassie Erasmus mocks Ireland’s Rugby World Cup record
WATCH: BOKS’ TRAFFIC LIGHTS ORIGIN STORY
CHECK OUT THE SPRINGBOKS’ FIXTURES BELOW:
Sunday, 10 September – Springboks beat Scotland 18-3 (Stade Velodrome, Marseille).
Sunday, 17 September – Springboks neat Romania 76-0 (Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux).
Saturday, 23 September – Springboks v Ireland (Stade de France, Paris). Kick-off time: 21:00
Sunday, 1 October – Springboks v Tonga (Stade Velodrome, Marseille). Kick-off time: 21:00
Weekend of 14/15 October – Quarter-finals
Weekend of 21/22 October – Semi-finals
Saturday, 28 October – Final
ALSO READ | Three forwards who could be World Cup game-changers for Springboks
You can also check out all the World Cup fixtures and kick-off times here, with South Africa and France notably in the same time zone.
