The involvement of Rassie Erasmus in the Springbok team for this year’s Rugby World Cup has come to a premature end.
He will instead commence his role as Western Province Senior Professional Coach with immediate effect.
His withdrawal from the Bok management team was confirmed by SA Rugby on Tuesday.
“SA Rugby, Rassie Erasmus and his legal advisor met earlier today to discuss the future involvement of Erasmus with the Springboks.
“Erasmus and his lawyer met with Jonathan Stones, the SA Rugby MD and Andy Marinos, manager of National Teams.
“The outcome of the meeting is that SA Rugby will allow Erasmus to start with his WP Rugby duties with immediate effect.
“WP Rugby on Friday announced the appointment of Erasmus as Senior Professional Coach. Erasmus joined the Springboks’ coaching staff earlier in the year as a consultant (technical advisor),” concluded the statement.
The loss of Erasmus will be a huge setback to the Springbok World Cup campaign, a fact confirmed by John Smit.
“I saw Rassie’s value during the time he was with the Springboks. His attention to detail is outstanding. He has an immense amount of knowledge and it will be to our disadvantage if we lose him,” said Smit before the announcement was made.
His lawyer Frikkie Erasmus said after the meeting, “For Rassie, this is a long-term career matter. He will use all his energy to make a success of it.
“Rassie has made a valuable input with the Springboks. This has been confirmed by players and the team management.
“It won’t be right for Rassie to become involved with WP before this week’s match against the Cheetahs. His integrity is such that he does not want to be regarded as having divided loyalties.”
It was announced last week that Western Province has signed a contract with Erasmus which would run until the end of 2010. SARU had not entered into any agreement to secure his services for the Rugby World Cup.
Rob Wagner, MD of WP Rugby, confirmed that it was Erasmus’ wish to commence his contract in August. “Rassie wanted his contract to commence on August 1. We never intended entering into a debate with SA rugby about the issue.”
At first I thought this was good old club vs country problems, but it looks like Rassie wanted to start on August 1. Strange. He must have the same problem reading his diary as Lote Tuqiri does. Rassie – the world cup starts on 7 SEPTEMBER!