Future of rugby on brink of destruction after Rassie Erasmus successor confirmed
With the Springboks not playing since November and not playing another Test match until July, the rugby world has entered a period of peace and solitude, free from bizarre Twitter threads – and even videos – from director of rugby Rassie Erasmus.
It is as close as fans outside of South Africa get to a rugby utopia, where referees can blow a whistle without fear of being part of a feature length film on Monday. But while the world is bracing itself for a return of those darker days with the return of the Rugby Championship in a couple of months, there is some far more terrifying news.
In South Africa’s latest episode of Inside the Boks, Erasmus was explaining to the South Africa players about the new management set up, which will contain a person that communicates directly with World Rugby about refereeing.
Now this can go one of two ways. On one hand, this new person will discreetly communicate with World Rugby, meaning people’s Twitter threads will be purged of toe-curlingly sarcastic tweets. On the other hand, there is now someone whose sole role is to berate officials. That is someone who will be tweeting and sharing videos 24 hours a day. That is a shuddering thought.
While Erasmus found time in his job as director of rugby to take a pop at referees, he was obviously still balancing that with coaching and the management of South African rugby. Rassie 2.0 will not have such a burden. The videos will be longer, the tweets will be more sarcastic and hell will break loose.
“We always have a lack of a management team, and we know we can work together,” the World Cup winning coach said.
“Even looking currently at the law and the referees, somebody’s responsible for that. Somebody who comes to you individually and talks to you about the law in the team and your penalties you give away and tells Rassie to shut up and not talk to referees. Get someone in the management team that just does that- he communicates to World Rugby because obviously it’s something big.”