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'Save our f***ing country': Unseen video of ex-Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus' powerful World Cup speech
A new documentary has revealed Rassie Erasmus’ powerful team talk ahead of the Springboks’ quarter-final clash against Japan in last year’s Rugby World Cup.
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In the inspiring speech, the Springboks coach tells his players what they’re really playing for and to use that as fuel against the hosts.
“When you get the f***ing chance, physically bully these guys today,” Erasmus says in an uncut pre-match team talk from the Springboks’ World Cup documentary Chasing The Sun.
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“They can’t turn it on and say ‘here we are’. They are tough little guys who have things that they call inside them. They have this mental thing where they prepare. They’ve got mental coaches and s***.
“You play for different things. You play for your mum and things like that. You come from a tough background. And we’re going to need that s*** today.
“These guys do it because they want to grow the game of rugby. We want to do it because we want to save our f***ing country … We’ve got f***ing 40 murders a day. All the women get raped every day.
“These guys are playing rugby to get it on the map. That’s their motivation. They’ve got a 120 million people, they’re one of the richest countries in the world, that’s their motivation. It’s pissing me off that they think that gives them the right.”
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At one point, Erasmus turns to individual players and tells them to intimidate the Japanese right from the outset.
“Don’t smile at them. Please don’t smile at them. Siya [Kolisi], when you get the toss, let them get the idea ‘I’m here to f*** you up’.
“From the first kickoff, from the first scrum, look them in the eye ball and let him understand all the s*** that they wrote in the newspaper.
“If you’ve got respect for me, because I’ve got a lot of respect for you guys, if you guys walk out of here and think that this is a joke, then you’re joking with the country and you’re joking with South Africa.
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“I want you to take this up seriously and I want you to f*** them up physically for 15 to 20 minutes. And if they give in, fantastic, and if they don’t give in, then we just tactically with the plan f*** them up.
“These guys are playing for something much smaller than we play. They’re playing to put rugby on the map. We’re playing to put a country together.”
The Springboks ended up defeating Japan in a dominant 26-3 win and would go on to claim the World Cup title.
Watch the full uncut team talk below (warning: explicit language):
