‘Rassie not the messiah of SA rugby’

FORMER Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has asked if Johan “Rassie” Erasmus is really the messiah he is being made out to be.

Saru will announce highly anticipated changes to its coaching staff at the end of the month.

Erasmus has come back from Irish provincial team Munster to take up the director of rugby position at the South African Rugby Union. “I don’t know if Rassie is the solution‚” De Villiers said.

“I think the solution is to go back to what Rian Oberholzer and Louis Luyt and those guys put in place.

“That was that a percentage of all sponsorship money must go to development.

“There are white boys who are missing out on Springbok colours because they’re not at a rugby school.

“I’m not talking about white and black here‚ I’m talking about development. All of us need development.”

De Villiers‚ who coached the Boks from 2008 to the end of the 2011 Rugby World Cup where they lost to Australia in the quarterfinals‚ has recently been appointed Zimbabwe national team coach on a two-year contract.

The Springbok team is officially coachless after recent incumbent Allister Coetzee parted ways with his employers on February 2.

De Villiers said he did not like the state of South African rugby but felt Saru needed to get its house in order before it could help other African rugby unions.

An example of this was how Rugby Africa voted against them in last year’s failed 2023 Rugby World Cup, yet they have an office at Saru’s premises in Plattekloof, Cape Town.

“They need to spend more money and time in terms of getting their own house in order if they want to make an impact and make people believe that they can follow them.

“Even if they have the resources to help those African countries‚ would they believe in them or would they take what they can give and do their own thing.

“If New Zealand go to any country in the world‚ even if they’re wrong‚ people will follow them because of their results and their house being in order. Charity begins at home.”