Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus often shares interesting videos and snippets from the Bok camp on his social media accounts.
When Rassie Erasmus moved to Cape Town in 2007 to coach the Stormers, he was decidedly wary of the media in general.
He wasn’t a big fan of social media either, and when he became Springbok coach in 2018, he warned his players about the pitfalls of focusing too much on their profiles instead of winning rugby matches first.
Then the penny dropped after the Boks’ 2019 Rugby World Cup triumph in Japan. “I was one of the guys who was never into that – we have a family Facebook page, but that was probably the closest I got to social media,” Erasmus said in 2020.
“But I have 16-year-old twin daughters who are very much into Instagram and those things.
“At the Rugby World Cup, with very full days – from 7am to 5pm you have training, team meetings, physiotherapy, treatments and meals – I quickly realised the amount of time we (as coaches) are exposed to the players, is limited (compared) to what they are exposed to (on) social media.
“It was actually a medium that almost irritated me, until I saw the light and understood the place for it in sport, or even in any facet of normal life, and decided to stop fighting with it and rather work with it.”
Now, Erasmus often shares interesting videos and snippets from the Bok camp on his social media accounts.
He was at it again this week after the end of the UK tour, where South Africa beat Scotland, England and Wales to finish the year on a high.
He started off with a “Just first of all, it’s Rassie Erasmus here”, and thanked the Bok supporters for “always standing behind us even when things didn’t go well”, adding: “Some critical messages make us want to work harder for you.
“Have a good holiday, and let’s stay nice and humble.”
He said he was recovering from shoulder surgery, and hoped to be out of the hospital by the weekend.
Erasmus’s turnaround is a lesson for all SA sports coaches to let the fans in and make everyone feel part of the team.
We will enjoy our holidays, Rassie –and so should you – but we can’t wait to see our champion Boks in action again in July.
Cape Times
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