WP rugby in a sweat as Erasmus quits
WESTERN Province Rugby’s director of rugby, Rassie Erasmus, has resigned but denied he was in line for the vacant post of Springbok coach.
Fear is mounting that Western Province could lose both their star coaches because Alistair Coetzee is still in contention to be the next Bok coach, who is due to be named on January 27.
The most widely speculated reason for Erasmus’s departure, that it was in advance of his being named part of the new Bok coaching set-up, was denied by his lawyer this morning.
The lawyer, Frikkie Erasmus, said the former Bok had been due to join the Province squad at preseason training in Hermanus this week, but had not done so and would leave Province at the end of the month.
Frikkie Erasmus said he could not divulge any further details because of “client confidentiality”.
“He has definitely not been approached (about the Bok job),” he said, adding that his client was considering “various options”.
Erasmus will turn 40 in November. He is married with twin daughters and a baby daughter, and lives in Stellenberg, Durbanville.
With Erasmus gone from the Province set-up, speculation is growing about Coetzee’s future.
SA rugby fans want to know whether SA Rugby feels it necessary to appoint a new coach immediately; whether it feels bound to appoint another black coach as successor to Peter de Villiers; whether it feels free to appoint strictly on merit; and whether there is a need for a director of rugby as well as a coach.
Regardless of how these questions are answered, Coetzee almost always surfaces as a leading contender for the coaching position.
The possibility of him getting the job is causing nervous moments for many in the Province rugby fraternity because his departure would leave a substantial void now that Erasmus has resigned.
Coetzee has able assistant coaches in Matthew Proudfoot and Robbie Fleck, who coach the forwards and backs respectively, but both are still developing as coaches at the highest level. LONDON: Nicotine patches are no better than willpower at helping smokers to quit, research shows.
Earlier clinical trials had suggested nicotine replacement therapy could double a smoker’s chances of giving up the habit.
But a new study of 800 patients found patches made no difference to long-term quitting rates.
Researchers said the earlier trials had failed to replicate “real-life” situations. They said success and relapse rates were similar whatever method smokers adopted.
The British NHS spends about £84 million (R1 billion) a year on stop-smoking programmes. A week’s supply of patches, obtained on prescription, cost £10 to £14.
The latest study – by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Massachusetts, Boston – investigated patients who gave up smoking between 2001 and 2006.
It concluded: “The main finding is that persons who quit relapsed at equivalent rates, whether or not they used nicotine replacement therapy to help them in their quit attempts, in clear distinction to the results of randomised clinical trials.”
Harvard’s Hillel Alpert said: “This study shows that using NRT is no more effective in helping people stop smoking cigarettes in the long term than trying to quit on one’s own.” – Daily Mail