The All Blacks have mythology. France? Romance. Argentina? Underdogs. But Rassie Erasmus’s South Africa are a vision cast in his image, one of ruthlessness, obsession and marginal gains
The All Blacks have mythology and France oozed romance but South Africa are cast in Rassie Erasmus’s image of ruthlessnesse’ve got fucking 58 murders a day,” Rassie Erasmus told his South Africa players in the Tokyo dressing room in 2019. “Women get raped every day. These guys have got 120 million people and they’re one of the richest countries in the world. It’s pissing me off that they think this gives them the right. These guys do it because they want to grow the game of rugby.
For many fans in Britain their impressions of Erasmus will be largely coloured by the extraordinary 62-minute video outburst that was leaked during the most recent Lions tour, picking apart the performance of referee Nic Berry.from all rugby activity for the video and would later admit in his autobiography that he “fucked up”.
At 92kg Erasmus was slight for a flanker, and so he quickly realised he would need to stand out in other ways: bravery, competitiveness, deception, intelligence. He took out a bank loan so he could purchase a state-of-the-art video analysis system from Israel that would allow him to study not just opponents but potential rivals for his place.
Everything here is plans and contingencies. Nothing is wasted or accidental. Early in the 2019 final against England, Erasmus realised that referee Jérôme Garcès was policing the breakdown particularly strongly, and so instructed Kolisi to remind his players of the rules, but loudly and within earshot of Garcès.
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