the coronation of South Africa, stamped with the seal of the Erasmus-Nienaber duo

2023-10-29 10:00:04
The joy of South African center Jesse Kriel, after the victory of the Springboks in the final of the Rugby World Cup, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), October 28, 2023. THIBAULT CAMUS / AP

And in the end, South Africa wins. The Springboks won the Webb Ellis Cup on Saturday, October 28, on the lawn of the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), which had already made them kings of the world in 2007. Winners of the New Zealand (12-11), the partners of captain Siya Kolisi retain their title, four years after their coronation in Japan. After France in the quarter-finals and England in the semi-finals, the All Blacks in turn experienced a frustrating defeat of a small point, faced with the intensity and tactics deployed by the now quadruple world champions.

Relive the match: New Zealand – South Africa: relive the victory of a very small point for the Springboks in the final of the Rugby World Cup

“Obviously, they have mastered their game. They are strong, experienced, and have learned to navigate the worst difficulties”, noted Ian Foster, the All Blacks coach. If his troops did more than respond to the challenge imposed by the Boks on Saturday, they ended up getting stuck in the web meticulously woven by the two-headed entity at the helm of South Africa: Johan “Rassie” Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber. The director of South African rugby and the coach of the Springboks have been coaching the team since 2018, having changed hats along the way – until the end of 2019, Rassie was coach, and Jacques his deputy.

It was in Bloemfontein, in the early 1990s, that the two men’s paths crossed for the first time, during their military service. “The army brings us together”says Nienaber, who quickly discovers his comrade’s trademark. “Tactically, he was already a genius. » The one who intends to become a physiotherapist then goes to the local university, where Erasmus, whose third-line talents are on display, begins the climb that will take him to the Springbok jersey.

Having become coach of the Cheetahs – the Bloemfontein team – in 2005, Rassie Erasmus called on his friend, who started as a physical trainer. The start of an eighteen-year adventure, which will see the tandem multiply experiences and teams, before taking the reins of a national selection that has lost its soul.

Two thinking heads of a mad scientist

Enter an Erasmus “passionate and authentic” – the words of New Zealand assistant coach Jason Ryan, who worked alongside the duo with the Irish in Munster – and a more phlegmatic Nienaber, the two men form a strange team. In the semi-finals against England, seeing the director of rugby harangue the staff while the coach drank his words could suggest that Erasmus remains the sole boss of the team. However, the success of the Springboks owes a lot to the balance between the truculent “Rassie”, a communicator who is a master in the art of slipping messages – “France sometimes simulates”he had released ahead of the quarter-final – and the more discreet but no less inventive Nienaber.

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