Nick Mallett: Rassie Erasmus built a united Springbok team through transparency

Rassie Erasmus’ transparency as the Springboks’ boss has been one of the hallmarks of his trophy-laden tenure.

Besides building squad depth, always looking to innovate and evolve and building an unmatched winning culture, Erasmus’ honesty and straight talk when tackling sensitive issues has seen him unite South Africa’s rugby fan base that has so often been driven along provincial lines.

Erasmus promoted honesty and transparency from the get-go when he was appointed coach in 2018. He spoke about the need to transform the Springboks to represent a democratic South Africa and bring the country together while building towards the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

It’s something his predecessors failed at, with bad results and transformation failures in the seven years leading up to his appointment.

The South African rugby public was tired of being misled. They were tired of lip service and empty promises. Erasmus seemed to learn from the past mistakes that hampered the Springboks by being forthright about his plans and then sticking to it.

It’s something that former Springboks coach Nick Mallett really admires and says it’s been the key to propelling the South Africa back to the top of World Rugby’s pecking order.

Mallett, in the latest Rassie+ podcast, believes the Springboks are in a really good place on and off the field because of Erasmus’ openness.

“What you’ve done is not go out and ask them to support you, it’s giving them information. Enough that they understand what you’re trying to do,” Mallett told Erasmus on the podcast.

“Then they understand better why you play a certain way or make certain changes. And what you’ve created – and the only Springbok coach who’s done it – is to make the Springboks bigger than the provinces, which it always should be.

“To transform the team and still win – that was your biggest challenge. And hell, you’ve done that well.”

Erasmus, however, admitted that he had a mindset shift about working with the media to get his points and ideas across to the people of South Africa.

It’s no secret that Erasmus didn’t enjoy the media scrutiny when he first started coaching, especially when he moved to Cape Town to mentor the Stormers.

During his time at the Stormers, he implemented a strict media policy, as he had to deal with a lot more media in the rugby mad Mother City than he had to in Bloemfontein when he coached the Cheetahs.

“I for sure didn’t have an understanding of the media in my first five years of coaching,” Erasmus said. “I totally bugged it up. I actually thought they were the enemy.”

“When we started everybody was hashtag this, hashtag that and they came up with #StrongerTogether and we had a workshop and we said, ‘but what does stronger together mean?’

“The players and coaches do the main job: coach well, play well. But the media, if we keep them informed in the right way – not giving secrets – then they report correctly, and fans better understand what they see on Saturday.”

@JohnGoliath82