RASSIE HAS SHOWN HIS LAAGER MENTALITY
IT WAS clear from the outset that Rassie Erasmus’s intent, since the start of his tenure, was to enforce the notion that non-white players are too incompetent to represent their country at the highest level, despite all of these players proving themselves week after week in the toughest competitions.
His first team selected against Wales honestly exceeded all expectations with regard to the team composition. It was better than that of Peter de Villiers and Alastair Coetzee. Those selected players represented this country with distinction in the first few Tests, just to be discarded when they had to face the top southern hemisphere teams.
Immediately the laager mentality kicked in, starting with the substitution of Bongi Mbonambi early in a match, after he made a mistake which he alone wasn’t responsible for. Substituting captain Siya Kolisi repeatedly is also indicative of this attitude. The composition of the team suddenly changed when he neglected to adhere to the required inclusive selection policy, which is reportedly part of his current terms of employment.
Why did only three players of colour start against New Zealand, with everyone else being degraded to second-string players on the bench? His management of the talented Damian Willemse and Embrose Papier since their inclusion in the squad is absolutely disrespectful, disgusting and insulting – sheepishly apologising and pretending to take responsibility for his attitude towards managing his bench, which included these two youngsters.
With regard to the last dead rubber against the All Blacks, why did he not give these youngsters an extended run after limiting them to no play time throughout the Championship?
His timing of the substitutions after about 70 minutes is also indicative of the fact that he was putting these youngsters and those on the bench up for failure. It was clear he never had and will never have confidence in non-white players. Why did he not give the bench warmers, or so-called impact players, a fair chance to prove themselves against the best in the world when the score was 21-6? Furthermore, it appears that unknown New Zealand scribes have been encouraged to criticise the efforts to make the national rugby side a team which all race groups can embrace and identify with.
Some individuals are maliciously feeding misleading information to foreign reporters, who report on it as truth.
Why are foreign scribes being used to make baseless arguments to justify Rassie’s intention not to make this team representative of this nation at next year’s Rugby World Cup? There is no reason Rassie can’t field a 50% representation for 80 minutes without compromising the strength of the current team.
Listening to and reading comments in the public and social media, I can declare it was mission accomplished, Rassie. You have strategically proved non-whites are worthy of being labelled quota players. FRANKLIN ARENDSE Kuils River