OPINION: Rassie Erasmus snub a clear bias from World Rugby

The snubbing of Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus for Coach of the Year at the World Rugby Awards smacks of clear bias and should embarrass World Rugby.

Ever since Erasmus’ infamous video criticising Australian ref Nic Berry during the British and Irish Lions series in 2021, that led to the first of two suspensions for the Bok boss from World Rugby, the South African coach, and by association the Boks in general, have not been viewed favourably by the top rugby body.

It, however, still came as a big surprise to see Erasmus passed over for the top coaching award, which he won in 2019 after leading the Boks to the World Cup title in Japan, with him again leading his side brilliantly over a superb 2024 season.

Last year it was World Cup winning coach Jacques Nienaber who was surprisingly overlooked in favour of Ireland’s Six Nations winning coach Andy Farrell, which reportedly led former Bok mentor Nick Mallett to quit World Rugby’s coaching voting panel.

This year Erasmus was ignored in favour of French Sevens coach Jerome Daret, who led his side to the Sevens World Series Grand Finale title and Olympic Games gold medal.

It is the first time that a Sevens coach has won the award, but what makes his selection surprising is that France didn’t have a brilliant season, despite triumphing in the two biggest events.

Sevens season

Over the regular season France only won one tournament, in Los Angeles, while they finished runner-up in Hong Kong and took third in Vancouver, which were their only podium places over the seven events.

That saw them finish fifth on the season log, with Argentina top, followed by Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.

In previous seasons the top team at the end would win the series, but this past season saw a change, with the top eight teams going onto the Grand Finale in Spain, where France came out on top, beating arguably the deserved winners, Argentina, who were the most consistent team.

France followed that up with an Olympic win on home soil, and in both those events the team was massively assisted by 15s star Antoine Dupont, who went on to be named Sevens Player of the Year despite only featuring in three events over the season.

On Erasmus’ side, the Boks were by far the best men’s international team this year as they finished with 11 wins from 13 games, while they powered to the Rugby Championship title and clean swept their tour of the UK.

It could have been even better for the Boks had a Ciaran Frawley drop goal after the fulltime hooter not given Ireland a one point win in Durban, while Manie Libbok missed an easy penalty with minutes remaining against Argentina in Santiago del Estero, as they went down by a point again.

In the end only those in World Rugby’s inner circle will know how they managed to snub Erasmus from claiming what would have been a deserved second coaching gong.