Loose Pass: ‘The Rassie show’ rolls on as ‘Trump-ish’ Springboks boss continues to cut a ‘marmite’ figure
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has been in the headlines this Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series.
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the Rassie show and the restart of the European club season…
Roll up, roll up
There are few people in rugby as marmite as Rassie. But love him or hate him, he’s managed to stamp brand Erasmus all over this fascinating Greatest Rivalry Test series.
There are also few people so able to move the general mood around with such apparent lack of effort. Almost Trump-ish in his ability to spark a storm with a throwaway soundbite, constantly re-interpreting and pushing at the elasticity of the law books to bring his own order to proceedings, always looking for – and usually finding – ways to turn a narrative to his own use, Rassie is starting to transcend the position of just head coach. It is becoming almost cult-like.
Masterful? You decide. His team soundly beaten the week before, Rassie made the week all about him. His mistakes the week before. His team announcement on Monday. His decision to make a couple of tweaks during the week. His glance upward at the weather and last-drop rotation of his front-row. Even in the game, his front-row substitutions before half-time. His sudden eruption and f-bomb in the press conference. His praise of World Rugby for reinforcing the maul laws that doubtless help his forwards use their impressive bulk to maul more tries. We all hung on Rassie’s words last week, while in the background, the squad barely uttered a word in public, heading back to the laager and getting set for Test two.
New Zealand did say and do things last week as well, but they weren’t very interesting in context. And when it came to the game, they were well-beaten, although it cannot have escaped anybody’s notice that they still look about 10 minutes fitter.
He’s been at it again already, naming his team on Monday and supposedly showing his hand early. We’ll see; but already we are focussed on Rassie, peering through the smoke and trying to make out the ghostly reflections in the mirrors. Not thinking about the fitness, not noticing, perhaps, that the try count in this series is New Zealand 9, South Africa 4. Even the attempt to manufacture a furore over Cheslin Kolbe’s ‘punch’ by sections of New Zealand’s media hasn’t worked, there are still more column inches spent considering whether Rassie’s last-minute changes were psychological genius or a raspberry in the face of the game’s traditions. We’ve even wondered if South Africa are winning because of him or in spite of him!
If it suited South Africa last week though, perhaps this week it will suit New Zealand. The All Blacks will be more than a tad miffed that the second Test got away, but there is an easy narrative there for the team to keep doing what it is doing and simply drop the penalty count. Easier said than done for sure, but that is a manageable target. All the more so while the music and drumbeats from the Rassie show dominate every airwave and few cast much of a glance in Dave Rennie’s direction. That’ll suit Rennie just fine. Into their own laager they go, knowing that the reality is that there is almost nothing between the two teams in terms of quality and ability heading into the decisive Test in South Africa (Baltimore notwithstanding).
And is this when the Rassie show becomes a distraction for his own, rather than a distraction from his own, perhaps? On and on the questions and analyses go about ‘walking around-gate’, on and on the chatter goes about the squad announcement and the veracity of it all. The spotlight now shines on the team through the coach, where last week it was only the coach. The All Blacks lurk in the shadows, which is quite often where they like to be. All the easier to strike out of nowhere.
The Rassie show goes on. How’s it going to end?
Top 14 season could be a classic
While Test rugby and provincial rugby in the south begins to move towards finales, Europe’s clubs are about to get going. The Pro D2 has already kicked off in France, and the Top 14 follows this weekend, with any number of fascinating stories.
It’s hard not to start in Toulouse, where the much-publicised departures of Francois Cros and Thomas Ramos mean that the celebrated pair’s swansong season could be one in which Toulouse manage a unique achievement: five Bouclier Brennus in a row, something no team has done before (also, only Toulouse have done it four times in a row).
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Toulon and Montpellier have both invested in experience in the off-season, while Bordeaux might turn attentions from Europe to domestic matters this season. At the other end of the table, Vannes’ squad is significantly thicker on rugby nous this time than it was two seasons ago, they do not look like the whipping boys that Montauban were last year. And can Perpignan engineer another escape via the Match Acces?
Ahhh, September. We almost missed you – fortunately the Rassie Show kept us entertained!
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