Are Rassie’s World Cup-winning assistants off to franchises?

The expertise that guided the Springboks to the World Cup title less than two years after Rassie Erasmus took over coaching them will – if the director of rugby has his way – most likely filter down to the South African franchises campaigning in Super Rugby and the Pro 14.

Erasmus, who stepped down from doubling up as Bok head coach after the World Cup final to focus on his director of rugby role for the remainder of his contract, is understood to be keen to embed his assistants in the franchises.

In the past, all of Erasmus’ assistant coaches have been available to assist the franchises in attempts to get South African rugby aligned. However, it was mostly on a consultancy basis, where they would either go on tour with the teams or spend a couple of weeks with them.

Now SA Rugby’s director of rugby, who dislikes having his assistants sit on their hands through the regular part of the season, would like to take that a step further by having each of the assistants embedded in those teams for the duration of their campaigns in their competitions.

While the rules of engagement are still unclear, what with Erasmus either still hungover from the trophy tour or finally spending a little down time with his family, Southern Kings acting head coach Robbi Kempson welcomed the idea.

“I heard that some time ago, but I’m not 100% sure how it would work,” he said. “It’s been his line of thinking from the beginning; that’s always been his approach. Rather than have his assistants sitting and doing nothing, he wants them to be involved. It’s more of a ‘here are my Springbok coaches, if you need them, you’re welcome to use them’ thing. I was actually going to phone [Bok defence coach] Jacques Nienaber to see if he can come see us next week ... ”

Given the speculation around him possibly succeeding Erasmus as Springbok head coach, it is unclear whether Nienaber will be on the list of would-be embedded Bok assistants. That said, Erasmus himself was at the forefront of availing himself to teams as it afforded him the opportunity to get up to speed on the latest trends in the game.

Also, forwards coach Matt Proudfoot will probably be unavailable as his contract was always going to end after the World Cup.

Looking at how impressive the Boks scrums and line-outs were, one wonders whether that has convinced Erasmus to retain him. But news out of France of Proudfoot’s predecessor Pieter de Villiers becoming available – he was sacked as part of Heyneke Meyer’s coaching staff by Stade Français this week – could put paid to that temptation.

Erasmus’ plan will come as welcome news to generally juniorised franchise coaches throughout the country.

Of the six franchises, only one has a coach – the Bulls’ Pote Human – who is in his second season in charge of their respective competition, meaning they all could use any help they can get.

Get in touch  City Press

+27 11 713 9001 news@citypress.co.za Media Park, 69 Kingsway Road, Auckland Park

Rise above the clutter | Choose your news | City Press in your inbox

City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday.