Eddie beaten all ends up by crafty Rassie

IDear Eddie Jones

felt a tad sorry for you last Saturday. It was a fleeting emotion, briefly interrupting the euphoria of watching the Springbok Green Machine, but it was there. Even my missus, who hates Aussies more than I do (and you are one of my favourite people from the land Down Under), said to me at one stage during the match: “Shame, he looks on the verge of tears.”

On Sunday, after I had recovered from a monumental hangover and had time to reflect on the happenings of the day before, I realised the cause of your unhappiness was the fact that your England team got swatted aside by the

Boks. That much was obvious. But I also realised it dawned on you during the game that wily Rassie Erasmus had put one over you.

You have been described as the best rugby coach in the world, a master tactician able to counter any plot hatched up by the opposition. I have to admit, I concurred with that assessment and was a bundle of nerves going into last weekend’s final.

The Boks had reached the final on the back of a kicking game, with Faf de Klerk launching more box kicks than I have had hot breakfasts. “That’s our game and we won’t change anything,” Rassie said in the build-up to the showpiece. And you bought it, Eddie.

Guy Hawthorne

My missus is convinced it is an Afrikaans thing (she is Afrikaans). “Pasop, boet, we are a devious bunch,” she once told me and I now have added reason to believe it.

Many, many, many years ago, when I was younger and fitter and played football for Wits University, we reached a cup final where we came up against a southern suburbs team coach by a guy from the deep south of Joburg by the name of Stoffie du Toit.

They had a talented striker in their lineup and it was his goals that had got them to the final. In our preparation in the week before the match, we concentrated on blunting the threat from their prolific centre forward. Our coach even selected an extra defensive midfielder to provide added cover to the back four.

Come match day and we were confident we had prepared enough to nullify the threat up front. So imagine our horror when the striker was left out of the starting eleven and was instead on the bench.

That rattled us and by halftime we were 2-0 down. The striker did eventually make a late appearance and scored in his side’s 4-0 thumping of us, but in all honestly the game was already over as a contest before the first whistle.

When asked afterwards why he had benched his star player, Stoffie answered with just a knowing smile.

Rassie did much the same last week and it worked a treat.

So, if you take anything away from those 80-odd minutes in Japan last weekend it will be to never trust a Dutchman (and I use the expression fondly). There are lessons to be learnt in all of life’s experiences.