Ex-Springboks captain: South Africans like being the ‘villains’… Rassie Erasmus has played into that
Springboks full-back Damian Willemse with an inset of centre Damian de Allende.
The Springboks aren’t bothered with being the villains, and Rassie Erasmus is playing into the tag.
That is according to former captain Bobby Skinstad, who states that South Africans have always been made out to be the bad guys and have learned to embrace that mentality.
“I think about this a lot. I’m obviously empathetic towards the villain,” he said on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.
“Southern Africa has been a pantomime environment for a long time, politically, racially, and economically; the whole world has had an eye on South Africa.
“I mean, I read something this week drawing back to the early 1930s and why South Africa is such a bad place to be. I was like, please give us a break.
“So, if it’s easy to be the pantomime villain, I think Erasmus has played to that a little bit, but I also think he deserves credit for his innovation.”
Springboks importance to South Afirca
Skinstad admits that he has no reason to sing Erasmus’ praises as he did not get along with the Boks’ head coach during their playing days, going as far as to say that they hated one another.
They have since buried the hatchet, and Skinstad admires the job that Erasmus has done since returning to South Africa to take on the Springboks coaching reins, leading the charge to two Rugby World Cup titles.
“He has worked incredibly hard to make the national rugby team of South Africa a very important part of what generates a lot of the feel-good for most of South Africa. It used to be a small white base, and now the whole of South Africa just shuts down when South Africa are playing rugby, and it doesn’t matter where they come from,” he continued.
“I often say this: I’ve got a 12-year-old boy who plays as a loose forward, and he doesn’t want to be Bob Skinstad; he wants to be Siya Kolisi.
“Now, for me, that’s us turning it around slowly, and I think that irks a few people because if we get it right, then it’s a good story for us. But we are big and abrasive and sometimes a little bit stupid-sounding and a whole bunch of things that give lots of people things to get irritated about. So, it’s part of it.
“Genuinely, I feel that Irish people travel the world, they’ve got an amazing diaspora, everyone can’t wait for Guinness. Ireland rugby and South African rugby used to be this way, where ‘Hey, it’s okay, you beat us most of the time, but we have a good fun’.
“Then they started to win a few games, and now it’s like you cheating bastards, you’ve done this to us again. So there’s much more niggle in that match than there used to be, and I think it ebbs and flows; with the English, it has always been there.
“We’re quite friendly with the Scots because I think they’ve beaten us once or whatever. We’ve had losses to Ireland, so it irks us, and it irks them that they’ve now had some victories and a taste of ascendancy, and if it doesn’t come on the weekend, they’re pissed off. So that’s not a bad thing at all.”
The former captain added that for Erasmus, it’s all about his team performing for South Africa and making the country proud, and how they are perceived outside of that is an afterthought.
The All Blacks used to get away with everything
2003 Rugby World Cup-winning England centre Mike Tindall weighed in, stating that extremely successful teams always end up being the villains and are accused of cheating, referencing the 2011-2015 All Blacks.
“We have to remember just how good this Boks team is at the moment,” Tindall said before repeating the statement.
“They are like that generational New Zealand team that they’re compared against. Everyone thought they were always cheating that New Zealand team, ‘Oh my god, they just get away with everything’.”
Skinstad chipped in: “Talk about pantomime villains. Look at Richie McCaw. You love to hate him, do we say he’s the greatest loose forward ever? Absolutely.”
Tindall agreed and continued: “Those All Blacks were seen to get away with everything, now because this team wins all the time… like I don’t think Malcolm Marx is ever legal when he steals the ball, but he’s bloody brilliant, but until someone moves him… it then builds, but that is good for the sport because it gets into that place and and the the South African fans are so good at piling on.
“That is the beauty of where we are at the moment. The international game is at such a good level of competition between teams. We want that.”
“We like not being liked,” Skinstad replied. “Well, we like not being liked because you win. So we know what makes us not liked, so then we rise to that. You know what I mean?”
Former Ireland full-back Geordan Murphy agreed that it’s simply a trend in the sport.
“This is age-old, though. You look at the great English teams of the ’80s in the northern hemisphere, ‘Oh, they are arrogant, and we hate them, and everything and everyone will go at them,” he said.
“And then it’s not until that you actually sort of start beating each other regularly and having these ding-dong battles that that rivalry forms.”
