Colin Sheridan: Rassie heads off on his own little Erasmus

Rassie Erasmus: Taking a forced break from the game. Picture: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

In his almost 50 years on the planet, Johan ‘Rassie’ Erasmus has achieved a lot.

You would think guiding his beloved South Africa to victory over England in the 2019 Rugby World Cup would be the pinnacle, but it’s not even close. His self-immolation last summer in the form of his now infamous video release as a Lions series hung in the balance, was one of the greatest acts of sporting sacrifice since Roy Keane gave us One Night in Turin.

In an hour long video, Erasmus laid bare his frustrations with a manner of things, namely the treatment of his Springbok team by officials, both on the field and off, as well as a few tasty broadsides at the over-sensitivity of the Lions team and their coaches. In a much-hyped series of games that proved itself as exciting as an Oireachtas session, Erasmus’s video was undoubtedly the highlight. It was unprecedented and it was kind of funny, which in the over-curated rugby world of contrived craic, is something we should be thankful for. In any case, it arguably swung the series.

Many, many times during his missive Erasmus offered himself up to the authorities “If anybody is to be punished for speaking up...it should be me”.

His brazenness was so direct it must’ve completely confused World Rugby, the sports governing body, who only delivered their findings on the matter last week, in the guise of an 80-page report, just as the curtain was about to fall on the international season.

I’m not sure how big the font was or what spacing they used, but suffice to say many believe they could’ve reached their conclusions a little sooner than before ‘Fairytale of New York’ started popping up on the radio. The crux of it all? Erasmus has been suspended from all rugby activities for two months, and from all matchday activities until September next year.

One match day activity seemingly exempt from the suspension is cracking open a few cold ones and posting it to Twitter, which he spent a portion of his weekend doing. Surely this is the most quintessential matchday activity of them all? If World Rugby were to consider an addendum to their sentence, it should be based on the abysmal quality of Guinness Erasmus was forced to drink in one of his ‘proof of life’ videos.

And so Rassie Erasmus is forced to go an...Erasmus himself. For the more passive consumers of rugby amongst us, the only Erasmus we would have ever heard of before Rassie rocked up to Munster was the Erasmus programme in universities which facilitated study abroad. It became a go-to explanation for the absence of a lad you expected to see back on the Sigerson panel in September, or a muse sadly absent from the college canteen. “She’s on Erasmus in Cadiz,” the familiar refrain.

Those who didn’t Erasmus wish they did, as those who did always returned tanned, and a much more self-assured version of their previous selves. I wonder will the same be true for Rassie? Hardly, self-assurance is not an issue. Incidentally, the man who gave his name to the programme, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466–1536) was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. His baptismal name, Erasmus, from the Greek word for ‘beloved’, was chosen in homage to St Erasmus of Formiae in Italy.

As a teacher, educationist, and someone who spent his life in various locations around Europe — a bit like Rassie — the old man represented much of what the Erasmus programme would later seek to promote. He was the author of various educational works, including Education of a Christian Prince, written as advice for the young King Charles of Spain, later Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. It was written as rebuke to the ideas expressed in Machiavelli’s The Prince, which had advocated for a policy of the end justifying the means. I guess what I’m trying to say is there was a bit of aul devil in Old Erasmus the Dutchman, just as there is in the Rassie of today. Maybe a dissenting voice isn’t such a bad thing?

I will admit to not having read neither the entirety of the 80-page Erasmus report or the Education of a Christian Prince, but, one must wonder in publishing their judgement now and handing down an objectively draconian sentence, World Rugby has not martyred Rassie in a way he hoped for all along? Has World Rugby ever heard of the Easter Rising? How many players and coaches privately agree with his willingness to question the governing body by airing his frustrations in the manner he did? I get the feeling it was one of those “rather him than me — but I completely agree” situations.

Erasmus’s willingness to go rogue and poke the po-faced bear that is the rugby establishment is certainly at odds with the gentlemanly ethos of the game. This is flagrantly clear from the wording of the six charges levelled against him by World Rugby. Perhaps they never heard the story of the referee who found himself in the boot of a car in Wicklow? Regardless, he is likely to appeal. In the meantime, it’s rolling into summer in South Africa, expect plenty of braai and beer content on social media from Rassie.

His Erasmus will be carefree, there’s nothing surer.