February 14, 2025

World Rugby bans Rassie once again

ROLAND GARROS, PARIS – Rassie Erasmus was banned in the opening game of the Rugby World Cup against Scotland from sitting with Springbok players on the bench during matches.

It is for this reason that South Africa’s director of rugby (pictured above) decided to revert to the controversial, but innovative traffic light system that he used early in his coaching career at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein to communicate messages to the players and the physios on the field when crucial decisions need to be made.

Erasmus, who famously led the Springboks to World Cup glory in Japan in 2019, previously copped a lengthy ban from World Rugby for acting as a water boy during test matches.

World Rugby changed their own rules to prevent Erasmus from directly interacting with players on the field.

Close to the action

Erasmus then decided he would sit on the bench at the Rugby World Cup and not with Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber and the rest of the coaching team in the coaching box. This was because in that way he could still be close to the action.

However, World Rugby decided to move the goal posts once again by ejecting Erasmus from the side of the field during the Scotland game.

South Africa tackle host nation France in the last of four quarter final clashes at 21:00 here at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.

Rassie Erasmus at the Springbok training session at the Stade Omnisport Photo: Adnaan Mohamed

Erasmus explained the sequence of events at a press conference at the impressive media headquarters at Roland Garros on Tuesday: “In the first game, I was sitting on the bench with the bench players. A nice match commissioner said I couldn’t sit there. I said I didn’t know, I don’t want to cause trouble, but I have sat here for all the other matches. He said to me no, it was an addendum to the participation agreement.

“In the match I had to move up to the coaches and that is when we started putting on the lights as I couldn’t talk to the medical staff.

‘Earn Respect’

“So, it’s really just a form of Communication, to get messages to players but to know what medical and S&C staff are thinking.”

The former Bok loose forward has been in trouble with World Rugby for his criticism of the refereeing in the first test of the British and Irish Lions series on social media.

The 51- year-old copped a ban from the sport’s governing body.

Since then, he and the rest of the Bok management team have been working hard to earn respect and to build a positive relationship with referees.

Their efforts seemed to have paid off with the Boks not conceding any cards during the pool stages of the tournament.

“For us the first word is respect. I think definitely we got it wrong in stages especially when we had the year off with Covid and we went into the Lions series,” said Erasmus.

“The levels of communication were tough and was really, even when we played our 100th game against New Zealand we were in a bubble in Australia.

“World Rugby couldn’t be there and during the Lions series they couldn’t be there because of Covid.

So, it was tough to get better communication and I guess on both sides it led to frustration.

“Last year I had a phone call with [former referee] Nigel Owens and I said ‘we really want to get this right; we don’t want people not to like us.

“That is not the reason for us, maybe sometimes having differences and doing things in a way just to get a response.

“We wanted to know how things worked and I must say what we learned from those conversations.

‘Adapt our game’

” It didn’t matter if we were right, the respect you show to the referee you will get back from that referee, even if he makes mistakes or you make mistakes.

“We also had to adapt our game a little bit. If you only rely on a maul, it is difficult to referee a maul.

“If you only rely on a scrum, it’s difficult to referee a scrum. I’ll be honest with you, there was one tweet I tweeted especially after the France game [in 2022], I was quite honest and serious about it.

Erasmus said they had work hard on their discipline to change their game to make it easier for referees. They worked particularly hard on the level change for tackles.

“So yes, no cards, I think we are fourth lowest in the penalty count. We had to earn the respect back and I think it is showing at this stage that it works both ways.”

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