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Pieter-Steph du Toit explains how Rassie Erasmus 'gets under your skin'
By
Josh Raisey
Rassie Erasmus is one of the most successful coaches international rugby has ever seen, but his methods are not always popular the world over.
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The South Africa coach has guided his side to back-to-back World Cups in different roles, but he has been no stranger to controversy. But ultimately, his success cannot be argued with, nor can the respect he has garnered from his players.
Since becoming the Springboks’ director of rugby 2017, Erasmus has created a unique environment, but one that flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit describes as “tough” at the same time, as the former Springbok pushes his players to the limit.
The 2023 World Cup final player of the match was a guest on RPTV’s The Big Jim Show recently, where he opened up on how Erasmus operates.
The 31-year-old explained how Erasmus is the “best guy for the team” as he “gets the right people to understand his mindset”.
Alongside Jacques Nienaber, Erasmus created an unrivalled culture where “the team is bigger than the individual” and du Toit said how the 51-year-old gets his players to buy into that plan. He can nevertheless be quite extreme with his methods.
“He pushes you to the limits,” du Toit said.
“He gets under your skin. Sometimes he trains with you and, for instance, say he’s in defence and they pass to you and you miss the ball, he will make a noise before and you miss it and he’ll say ‘he’s scared’.
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“So he gets under your skin and shouts ‘ah, he’s scared!’ He’s always trying to get under your skin and trying to get you to prove him wrong. That’s also what I meant with getting the right people. He pushes the buttons and says stuff that’s not always true but you think he believes it’s true and you want to prove him wrong.
“It’s proper old school.”
Since he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
Rassie The GOAT
My favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2.
News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that.
“You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque.
Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you.
When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up.
Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office.
Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction.
This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right?
But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach.
Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
What Rassie does for SA is big.
It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
The manipulative and cynical Erasmus….