Jean de Villiers insists that South African rugby is still lagging behind with its coaching pathways as he and Schalk Burger discuss Rassie Erasmus’ potential successor.
The Springboks are the back-to-back Rugby World Cup winners and have some of the best brains in the business in their backroom team.
Led by Erasmus, who has been central to their success since becoming part of the set-up in 2018, they lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in both 2019 and 2023.
Erasmus’ future
The 52-year-old has committed to the Boks for the next World Cup in Australia but it remains to be seen whether he stays beyond that tournament in 2027.
SA Rugby will no doubt be making plans about what they intend to do next on the coaching front.
There are few options within the current Springboks set-up who could take over while they may look at some of the South Africans abroad.
One person who appears to be putting himself in the conversation is Bath’s Johann van Graan, who has led the English club to the top of the Premiership and the Challenge Cup final.
Burger claimed on the Boks Office podcast Van Graan “will be one of them for sure”, before De Villiers added: “We’ve actually got a few outside of the current group that they’ve got there.”
Whoever is leading the Springboks post-2027, they would have to be particularly special to improve on the current backroom team, according to the show’s host, Hanyani Shimange.
“The current group’s got to be the best in the world. If you look at the mix of the Boks management now, I don’t see a management team better than the Bok management team,” former South Africa Test prop Shimange said.
Jean de Villiers claims Rassie Erasmus has ‘opened a can of worms’ with Juarno Augustus selection
De Villiers then suggested that South Africa are beginning to produce more talented coaches who could potentially come into the reckoning.
Springboks’ potential options
“But it’s nice then to have a Johann van Graan and a Johan Ackermann, who came back, and a Franco Smith, who has been successful, and these guys coaching Lyon as well,” he said.
“They function under the radar but they’re there or thereabouts.
“You saw Albert van den Berg with the Scarlets, you saw Corniel van Zyl with Cardiff on the weekend, Frans Ludeke.”
The ex-Springboks captain believes that they have previously failed to produce enough top-class coaches and that it is an area in South Africa which still needs to be developed.
“That’s good to see because I think that’s somewhere we still can improve in South African rugby, so that there’s a pipeline for coaches coming through and being able to help them,” De Villiers added.
“From a player point of view, we’re great, but from a coaching point of view we can improve a lot on that.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/schalk-burger-claims-johann-van-graan-for-sure-in-contention-to-succeed-rassie-erasmus-as-springboks-great-worries-about-coaching-pathways
