Rassie Erasmus' Springboks dynasty could even surpass the All Blacks' level of dominance

About a year ago, former Ireland and Munster wing Simon Zebo caused a stir when he told a podcast that “Rassie Erasmus hates the Irish. He really doesn’t like us.” It just so happened that this eyebrow-raising story broke on the day Erasmus was holding a press conference ahead of the Boks’ Test against Ireland in Pretoria.

Just before the coach walked into the room, I showed him the Zebo story on my phone. Rassie knitted his eyebrows and then burst into laughter.

“No, this is a piss-take,” he laughed. “I talk to Simon all the time on WhatsApp. I coached him at Munster. We are good mates. He is a naughty bloke, and someone has taken him seriously. He will think it hysterical that he has caused a drama.”

It turned out exactly as Rassie described it. Zebo had been mischievous.

So when Zebo was interviewed on a podcast on Friday and the subject of the Springboks coach came up, the interviewer had to ask him to put his serious cap on.

What Zebo had to say about Rassie was illuminating.

Zebo explained that when Erasmus arrived at Munster in 2018, he found a sick team culture and took swift action.

“I remember we had played Cardiff in Rassie’s first game,” Zebo said. “I looked at my phone in the morning and it said: ‘You’ve been added to the group, Virus.’ And then I saw all the names being added. It was like, ‘Jeepers, this is mad.’

“We went in, and I remember Rassie had come in after the loss and seen people congregating in the corner, bitching, moaning and blaming.

“He was so emotionally intelligent that he was seeing certain things. He was looking and observing, so we all got added to this group on the Monday.

“He flogged us on that Monday. It was eight in the morning, and he gave a big meeting about the idea of the ‘virus’, which is that if you don’t take ownership or accountability, and you’re going to pull another fellow down with you, that’s where the deadwood term comes in.

“After that, he started getting rid of fellows, and he changed the whole culture.”

Team culture is everything to Rassie. He knows from personal experience, having lived in team environments his whole life — as a player and then as a coach — what makes a side perform and what does the opposite.

One of my favourite Rassie quotes is when he spoke about himself as a player with a bad attitude for a period with the Springboks in the late ‘90s.

“If I had been coaching Rassie Erasmus, I would have dropped him because he was an entitled a**ehole,” he said.

Erasmus was joined at Munster by Jacques Nienaber, and together they were described as a “good cop, bad cop” combination.

“Rassie had a huge influence on all of us — not just me. Even players who didn’t really like him or get selected by him had an unbelievable amount of respect for him,” Zebo said.

“I’ve never seen anybody who is as good a coach, from being a tactician to empowering or instilling belief in players.

“He and Jacques together were an amazing duo.

“With my Munster hat on, I never wanted Rassie to leave (at the end of 2017). I thought he would take us to the holy grail of the Champions Cup.”

Instead, two years later, Rassie won the World Cup for South Africa.

With a smile, Zebo revealed that some Irishmen were winners as a result. He told his uncle, a keen punter, to back the Boks to win in Japan in 2019 — and he did.

“I knew straight away, if Rassie had the talent pool that South Africa had, there’s no way they wouldn’t win a World Cup with him there,” he said.

For Springbok supporters, Zebo saved his best for last: “Irrespective of the main team, the generation coming up below — the talent they now have at their disposal… Oh my goodness, I think they’re going to be the new All Blacks, where for 20 or 30 years, or maybe longer, no one could touch them.”