SA Rugby director of rugby Rassie Erasmus during the Springbok press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Picture: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
SA Rugby director Rassie Erasmus showed conflicting emotions during a Springbok press conference on Tuesday afternoon with him mourning the loss of a friend, but happy with the progress of Derick Hougaard.
Tragic news filtered through late on Monday that former Scottish international and Munster staff member Greig Oliver had died after a freak paragliding accident in Cape Town.
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The 58-year-old was in the country supporting his son Jack, who is representing the Ireland U20 team in the U20 World Championship being hosted in the Western Cape.
“One of our friends at Munster passed away tragically yesterday. When somebody is ill or you lose someone it is incredibly sad. So I would like pass our condolences on to everybody on the Munster and Irish side,” said Erasmus.
SA Rugby president Mark Alexander also passed his condolences on to the Oliver family and Irish rugby fraternity as a whole and pledged any help that they can from SA rugby’s side.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Oliver family at this terrible time and with the whole Irish team over whom a terrible shadow has been cast,” said Alexander.
“This tournament is about youth, enjoyment and shared experience for young men and their families and to have such an awful accident befall one of the players’ parents is distressing in the extreme.
“We all share the pain of the Oliver family and join them in their sorrow at what should have been a time of optimism and excitement.
“The South African Rugby Union, which is hosting the event on behalf of World Rugby, will do everything in its power to support the Oliver family in coping with this terrible situation.”
In happier news, former Bulls legend Hougaard, who had slipped into a coma after a short illness last month and was given a 50/50 chance of getting out of it, is on the road to recovery and back at home with his family.
Erasmus said that they were thrilled with the news and were hoping to pick up a win over the Wallabies this weekend to dedicate to him.
“We are very happy that Derick is getting better. I am not on top of that, so I don’t know all the ins and outs, but it is great news to hear he is getting better,” said Erasmus.
“We are playing at Loftus this weekend and he was known as the ‘Liefling of Loftus’ so hopefully we can get a win for him this weekend.”
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