Three cheers for Rassie, he restored Bok pride

If we had to analyse Rassie Erasmus’ first season in charge of the Springboks purely on numbers, Steve Komphela’s famous quote sums it up pretty well.

“Statistics are like a bikini, they don’t reveal everything,” the colourful Komphela once said.

After winning seven and losing seven of his first 14 Tests in charge, people are saying, “He’s only got a 50% success rate,” and “He wasn’t quite the saviour he was made out to be.”

That’s harsh if you ask me, and I was never that convinced Erasmus could work wonders after the mess Allister Coetzee made.

I also thought a six-year contract was generous for a man who had not even overseen one match.

Before we get to the numbers, let’s take a look at the things Erasmus did achieve in his first year.

He did more for transformation than any of his predecessors, right through from team selection to picking a captain; he unearthed some real stars, like Aphiwe Dyantyi and Sbu Nkosi; he beat the All Blacks, something we hadn’t done for a while and which Coetzee couldn’t achieve; he sorted out a leaky defence which was very embarrassing at times under Coetzee; he hasn’t embarrassed the badge by shocking losses to the likes of Japan and Italy, like the two previous coaches; and he instilled a sense of self belief, not only in the team but also among Bok fans.

About the numbers: it could so

Jaco van der Merwe

easily have been 57%, had “bonehead” Angus Gardner penalised Owen Farrell at Twickenham, or even 64%, had the Boks taken their chances during a five-point loss in Brisbane against the feeble Wallabies.

And the bikini comparison could not be more true than when weighing up the records of Coetzee and Erasmus against the All Blacks – still the yardstick in world rugby.

People who say, “Erasmus’ 50% success rate is just slightly more than Coetzee’s 44%”, clearly don’t remember what happened against the Kiwis in 2016 and 2017.

Coetzee did manage a narrow 25-24 loss in Cape Town, but his first three Tests against them yielded shameful defeats of 41-13, 57-15 and 57-0.

That is cumulative score of 27 points for and 155 against in three Tests, or 9-52 on average. Enough to make anybody puke.

Erasmus’ record? Sixty-six for, 66 against, with one two-point win and one two-point defeat.

He is six points to the better over two Tests against the Wallabies, even-stevens in two matches against Argentina and two points down in four Tests against England. The only team he didn’t beat was Wales.

The first encounter was with a fresh-faced bunch in Washington and the second with a few stars missing and a tired team running out of steam against a Welsh side on a tremendous roll.

Still, the Boks were only 11 points down in those two matches combined, which was far from embarrassing. A humiliating 38-3 defeat against Ireland 12 months ago rings a bell.

All in all, numbers or no numbers, Bok rugby is in a much healthier state than it was 12 or 24 months ago and there is a real glimmer of hope before next year’s World Cup.

For that I doff my hat to Rassie.