Now comes the real test Rassie Erasmus realises all too well that the honeymoon is over
He had free rein when it mattered less in June, but now, as coach Rassie Erasmus realises all too well, the honeymoon is over
● So dark were the days before he took the reins as coach that the lead-up and the Tests in June were hyped as a Springbok renaissance under coach Rassie Erasmus.
The accolades seemed hardly commensurate with a record that shows two wins from four Tests, and yet Erasmus stands on the edge of the Age of Enlightenment should his team somehow win the Rugby Championship that starts next weekend.
It will take some doing, however. All the teams, bar perhaps New Zealand, are a notch better than they were a year ago, but that is not to say the All Blacks won’t have the final word come October 6.
Feel-good factor, for now
What Erasmus has going for him, however, is a currency his predecessors had in short supply. There is a feel-good factor about the Boks that has not existed since they won the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Honeymoon periods, Erasmus will be the first to admit, don’t last.
That he has been able to negotiate the initial stages of his tenure on a wave of positive public sentiment has been largely due to astute choices. To be fair, though, the climate when he took office was one thick with “anyone but Allister (Coetzee)”.
Erasmus helped engineer some of the positive sentiment by declaring an unbridled commitment to transformation, and acted upon it decisively by installing Siya Kolisi as the Springboks’ first black captain.
It also helped that he took the job with the sleep-easy guarantee of a six-year contract, and that the board is on board, for now.
“We are going to have challenges in the next few months,” Erasmus has frequently said. He vowed to make brave calls, even if it meant losing some matches.
He wants to put players under pressure. “If we don’t put them in these situations we’ll never know if we can win the World Cup. We don’t want to trust just 14 players going to the World Cup, we need a squad of 31.”
By introducing 16 new players to international rugby, performance, in particular composure, was compromised. Erasmus has spoken of the sting that comes with defeat but that is more palatable than having to feel the pinprick as the public’s voodoo doll.
The challenge he faces from next week cannot be compared with facing Wales outside the Test window, or squaring up with England, who arrived here at their lowest ebb since Eddie Jones became their coach.
In the Rugby Championship, Australia and Argentina are expected to be more formidable than they were last year.
Australia, it has been argued, had the better of New Zealand in five of the six halves of rugby they played last season. The All Blacks smashed them in the first half of the first Test, but the Wallabies looked a competent and at times audacious side thereafter. Already All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has installed the Wallabies as favourites to win next weekend’s clash in Sydney.
Even the Pumas will make a leap
After recording just three wins in their last 23 Tests, Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade stepped down following home defeats by Scotland and Wales in June. He made way for Mario Ledesma, who gave the Jaguares bite in Super Rugby.
Ledesma was a tough-as-teak front ranker before he cut his coaching teeth in Europe. A stint with the Wallabies further helped broaden his horizons. The Pumas won’t be easy beats under him.
The Boks face them first on back-to-back weekends before they have engagements against Australia in Brisbane (where they last won in 2013) and New Zealand in Wellington (where they last won in 1998).
“We all know that if the results don’t come then in a couple of weeks’ time you guys are going to be asking me about my future,” Erasmus said last week.
“There are three things, three pillars to our goal. Firstly we need to be winning, secondly we need to be transforming (in terms of racial representation within the group), and thirdly we need to be building depth.
“Winning is the primary thing. Just like I said before the June matches, I know I won’t still be sitting here if we have a terrible Rugby Championship. But we also need to build towards being successful. In saying that, I am not saying judge me on the World Cup.”
I am not saying judge me on the World Cup Rassie Erasmus
Springbok coach