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South Africa's Rassie Erasmus begins mind games with England
By Josh Raisey
No sooner had South Africa dumped World Cup hosts France out of their own tournament on Sunday in Paris than director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was switching his focus on semi-final opponents England in his own unique way.
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The 2019 World Cup winning boss is famed for his activity online on X, where he uses the platform to drop subtle hints and potentially get in the mind of his opponents. That has been done in some frivolous ways during the course of the tournament, like solely following Scotland and Ireland before the two faced each other in the final match of Pool B. Well he has opted for the same ploy this week by now only following England.
It is hard to believe that Erasmus is going to spend the next week poring over England’s social media accounts in order to gain any kind of tactical advantage, but it does nevertheless send a message that he is focussed on his opponents this weekend and focussed only on them.
This is not exactly as hard hitting as mind games go, but it is just a subtle poke ahead of what is surely going to be some slightly more heavy-handed swipes over the coming week.
Erasmus has not yet addressed the upcoming semi-final, although Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber did after the victory over France, describing the challenge as “massive”.
“I think it’s going to be a nice challenge,” he said ahead of a repeat of the 2019 final. “In knockouts anything can happen, like tonight I followed the England game when we were on the bus here. Also they (England) had a healthy lead and then Fiji came back and then they also pushed it right to the end. I think knockouts are going to be small margins right to the end.”
Looooove it, made me chuckle that press conference, predicted the England starting 23 bigged up the players and installed the boks as underdogs.. the journos are out for blood trying to paint him as a villain, they ask for this they want personality in fact they moan when they don’t get it and when they do they twist the narrative and they wonder why more players and coaches don’t do it. Cudos to Rassie he is the most astute coach out there.. as for the accusations on the HIA protocols well I wouldn’t be surprised if Jaco Johan makes a come back and shows the clips of head on head contact on PSDT, Bongi and Eben on that match something the TMO didn’t pick up but the videos are doing the rounds showing it . I hope the boks moer the English this weekend but also wouldn’t be surprised if England win, it is England at the end of the day
Standard fare for world rugby's leading clown, a truly sad, self obsessed ponce. We are not a great team by any stretch of the imagination and will lose by 10 to 15 points in the semi. The fact that we even got this far is an achievement in itself. NZ will eat SA for breakfast in the final assuming neutral officials.
Journos keep trying to generate clicks with the name “Rassie Erasmus” in their headlines, even if there’s absolutely nothing to write about.
It makes me wonder how much revenue he is generating for them, and whether they owe him some royalties
Pointless article
This is the most pointless article I've ever seen
- send a message that he is focussed on his opponents this weekend and focussed only on them +
now if that’s not a revelation …. whom else would a coach be focussed on in the build up of a SF game?