De Bruin roped in to help Boks

The innovative move to bring Lions coach Swys de Bruin (right) into the national set-up is part of the bigger picture he has for the Springboks, said coach Rassie Erasmus.

De Bruin, with the approval of the Lions Rugby Union, will join the Bok coaching staff on a consultancy basis for the June Tests, SA Rugby confirmed yesterday.

The addition of De Bruin is part of the process to involve coaches from all local franchises with the preparation of the Boks, an initiative by Erasmus, the SA Rugby director of rugby.

“I’ve always said we must improve our communication and cooperation with local franchise coaches,” said Erasmus.

“They spend much more time with the players, so better cooperation with them can only be a benefit and should be an obvious thing.”

De Bruin will link up with the Boks in the build-up to their first Test of the year, against Wales in Washington DC on June 2, as well as for the series against England, which kicks off on June 9 in Johannesburg.

Erasmus showed that he demands complete dedication to the national team after Pieter de Villiers unfortunately had to step down from his role as the team’s scrum coach.

De Villiers, a former French Test prop, was due to take over from Matt Proudfoot who served in the two years under former Bok coach Allister Coetzee, but now Proudfoot has been re-appointed.

Erasmus said he has had indepth discussions with De Villiers, who also served in the management team of former Bok coach Heyneke Meyer, but family issues would have prevented him from devoting most of his time with the team.

“After my discussions with Pieter, we jointly came to the conclusion that he would unfortunately not be able to give all his attention to the Springboks,” said Erasmus.

“Which is fully understandable given his current family commitments.”