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Rassie addresses Boks' talk that he regards as 'stupid'

(Photo by Clement Mahoudeau/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Rassie Erasmus is doing his best to dampen expectations as the Springboks prepare to launch their bid to retain the Rugby World Cup in France and insists it would be “stupid” to consider them favourites heading into the tournament which kicks off in September.

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As the reigning Cup champions prepare for their opening Rugby Championship match against Australia at home on 8 July, Erasmus, SA Rugby’s Director of Rugby, is even talking up the chances of the Wallabies under new coach Eddie Jones despite their poor record in South Africa. He said :” We’re under no illusions (how competitive this World Cup is going to be) You have the Wallabies under Eddie and the All Blacks present. Ireland are ranked No 1 in the world, France are second.

“Even through to Scotland, who are No 5, it would be stupid to argue that we’re carrying the favourite tag. We definitely don’t.

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“We’re not even going to argue in that direction because there would be no sense doing that. Yes, the expectations are definitely higher. We feel it on our shoulders. The nice thing about this group is that we’ve been together for a really long time.

“We’re very realistic and don’t get dragged into what other people are saying. We know, realistically, that in 2019 we were not exactly favourites. If anything, we were underdogs.

“We’re world champions and have to try and defend that title. We believe we have as good a chance as anyone to complete that objective. People definitely expect us to go to World Cup and get the job done. We’re certainly going to try.”

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The Springbok management are planning a split-squad system again for the Rugby Championship, although head coach Jacques Nienaber is adamant he is not operating an A- or B-team system.

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“It will not be an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ side. It will be similar to what we did in 2019. If you look at the team that played against Australia then, who started that game, I think a lot of people at the time thought that it would be an A and a B side,” he said.

“Beast Mtawarira started against Australia and he started in the World Cup final. Bongi Mbonambi started against Australia and he started in the World Cup final. Lood de Jager and Eben Etzebeth started, Pieter-Steph du Toit started. We’ll probably do the same. It will be a side that we believe will be good enough to beat Australia here at Loftus.”

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Comments

4 Comments
B
Big A 516 days ago

why is the schedulling so frickin
stupid _ we wait all year to
play internationals and then we have to play 2 games in six days whilst traversing the world - utter insanity -

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NB 48 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Nice bit if revisioniusm but that's all it is JW.


For your further education, I found the following breakdown of one prominent club's finances in the Top 14 [Clermont].


For Clermont (budget of €29.5 million for 2021-2022) :

- 20% from ticket sales

- 17% from the LNR (includes TV Rights, compensation from producing french internationals and other minor stuff)

- 5% from public collectivities (so you're looking at funds from the city of Clermont, the department of Puy-De-Dôme and the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)

- 4% from merchandising and events

- 3% from miscellaneous

- 51 % from sponsorships and partnerships. They've got 550 different partners. The main ones are CGI, Groupama, Limagrain/Jacquet, Omerin, Paprec, Renault and of course Michelin (not surprising since they're actually the founders of the club).


As you can see nothing comes from the FFR at all. The LNR is a separate entitiy to FFR and their aims frequently do not accord.


It is also why the European breakaway plotted by LNR and PR back in 2013 had nothing to do with the governing bodies of either England or France - and it most certainly did not have their blessing https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/15331030/jean-pierre-lux-anglo-french-cup-detrimental-european-rugby


And from the horse's mouth [ex AB skipper Sean Fitapatrick] about the comp between Top 14 and Super Rugby:


"The Top 14 in France is probably the best rugby competition in the world at the moment, purely for the week-in, week-out.”


“I think the quality of players. They are bigger, they are faster, they are stronger. Which then carries on into the international game.”

Take it from someone who knows JW😅

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