World Cup is more important than consistent results – Rassie Erasmus

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has admitted that winning the World Cup would always be the big picture for the Boks and would take precedence over them becoming a more dominant and consistent team during World Cup cycles.

At the Bok coaches’ press conference on Tuesday, Erasmus was asked whether the next goal on his agenda, having already presided over the Boks winning two World Cups, as head coach in 2019 and as Director of Rugby last year, was to improve the Boks‘ winning percentage going forward.

During the recent World Cup cycle, which took place from 2021 to 2023 (after 2020 was lost to Covid) the Boks won 21 out of 32 games for a win percentage of 66%.

Inconsistency

Their glaring inconsistency was best shown in 2021 when after winning the British & Irish Lions series 2-1, the Boks started the Rugby Championship by thrashing Argentina twice, before heading Down Under and losing twice to Australia, and then finishing the tournament on a high with a win over the All Blacks.

The Boks would go on to lose to Australia, who had a dreadful previous World Cup cycle and World Cup in France, again Down Under in 2022, before finally beating them in Sydney to break a poor run of games in the country that had seen them not win there since 2013.

Explaining his philosophy, Erasmus said that the Boks’ focus during World Cup cycles would be on growing and improving the team, and that they would rather be winning World Cups than winning more consistently but faltering at the showpiece event.

“I’m not sure to be honest with you … building a squad, trialling guys, giving guys opportunities, making sure that we always improve on squad depth, transforming the way we do things and trying to stay up to date … that’s our focus. We have to try things,” said Erasmus.

“We certainly did lose a few Test matches in the last couple of years between World Cups because we tried things to learn the answers by the time we get to the World Cup. It would be wonderful as head coach to do better between World Cups.

“But then again, do you want to try and get answers during the World Cup? We have had two runs at it at the last two World Cups, but know we have a clean slate.

“I would rather win the World Cup than sit at 80% (win rate). It’s better than not winning the World Cup at all and sitting at 80 to 85%. We would love to get that win percentage up, but we have to be brave and take chances with youngsters.”

Older players to guide youngsters

The Boks will also see a number of their older brigade begin to phase out over the current World Cup cycle, as quite a few players are already into their 30s and will be in their mid to late 30s by the time the 2027 event in Australia arrives.

“In 2018 we had a roadmap for the players and we said, ‘Where will this guy be in 2019, 2023 and 2027?’

“We know exactly which players can only last another year, and we have given them the task to help the youngsters before they leave,” said Erasmus.

“But it is a challenge to tell a player, ‘OK, you must stop now.’ We have guys in their 30s who believe they can win another World Cup. Johnny Sexton was 38 at the World Cup but I don’t see our age going over the average of 29 or 30.”