Rassie Erasmus and his Springboks are ahead of the pack in innovation, selection, game plan and conditioning, and the executive leadership within South African rugby are streets ahead of their international counterparts.
The Boks’ on-field results are a testament to their international ranking as the No 1 rugby nation on the planet.
The back-to-back World Cup winners and back-to-back Rugby Championship winners have started the past two years at No 1, and finished the Test season at No 1.
The Boks, since losing to Ireland in the 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool match in Paris, have lost just four of 31 Tests. They’ve beaten every top 10 nation away from home during the period, including wins against France in Paris, Ireland in Dublin, England at Twickenham, and the All Blacks in New Zealand, where they won in record-breaking fashion 43-10.
Erasmus has been the most influential coach in the history of the Springboks and the most successful head of rugby in the Springboks setup, previously as national director of rugby
Erasmus and his Boks are setting the standard, but within SA Rugby’s national structure the golden touch has not been exclusive to the Springboks.
Creating history
The under-20s won the world championship title, and the 7s were crowned champions for the 2024/25 season, and a week ago created history in winning in Cape Town for a second successive year.
The under-18s were unbeaten in their internationals this season, and the women’s Boks were history makers in reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time.
They lost to New Zealand’s Black Ferns and will get to play them in 2026 in a one-off Test in the curtain-raiser to the third Springboks and All Blacks Great Rivalry Tour Test at the FNB Stadium.
Financially, the organisation is the strongest it has been post-Covid, sponsorships are at an all-time high, and calm has replaced the chaos of 10 years ago.
Mark Alexander as president, and Rian Oberholzer as CEO, do most of their talking by way of action; with Oberholzer this week calmly confirming that the days of appointing coaches on single World Cup four-year tenures were over, and that long-term succession planning is the key ingredient to sustained success and consistency.
Most successful coach
Erasmus has been the most influential coach in the history of the Springboks and the most successful head of rugby in the Springboks setup, previously as national director of rugby.
Erasmus, the head coach in 2018 and 2019, promoted assistant coach Jacques Nienaber to head coach from 2020 to 2023, with Nienaber reporting to Erasmus.
When Nienaber took up a coaching role at Leinster in Dublin, from 2024 to 2027, Erasmus and Oberholzer agreed to a restructuring of his role. He would become Springbok coach, and Dave Wessels would become head of high performance, with an emphasis on women’s rugby, the U20s, U18s and 7s programmes.
The results have been unrivalled, as has the transformed nature of all things national.
Erasmus last week had his contract as head coach extended until after the 2031 World Cup in the US. The 2027 World Cup will be held in Australia.
Three World Cup golds
No nation has ever won three successive World Cup golds, with the All Blacks of 2011 and 2015 winning two successive golds and the 2019 All Blacks losing the semifinal to England in Japan and ending with a bronze medal after beating Wales in the third-place play-off.
Oberholzer also confirmed that Erasmus’s succession plan, in terms of the next Boks coach, will come from within the existing national coaching structure. For now, it rules out the likes of Nienaber (Leinster), Franco Smith (Glasgow), Johann van Graan (Bath), the four South African URC coaches, and coaches like Frans Ludeke, who is based in Japan.
However, Nienaber, who is out of contract with Leinster at the end of the 2026/27 club season, is a free agent before the start of the 2027 World Cup, and nothing stops Erasmus including him in a national setup he knows so well.
For the others mentioned, it would be if they are prepared to work as national assistants in the Boks system or pursue club head coaching roles.
Continuity is what has worked for Erasmus since 2018, and continuity from within is what he has trumpeted as the non-negotiable if the Boks are to continue to be the sport’s leaders.
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