Rassie Erasmus confirms he will not be taking IRFU role after World Cup

The South African chief has been linked with the role soon to be vacated by David Nucifora.

Mon, 18 Sep, 2023 - 15:06

Brendan O'Brien

Rassie Erasmus only has eyes for Ireland, but only for now.

The South African Director of Rugby has been heavily linked with the IRFU Performance Director role soon to be vacated by David Nucifora, but any suggestion that he would return to Ireland after a short stint with Munster, just as his Bok head coach Jacques Nienaber is joining Leinster, has been put to bed for good.

"No, no, no," said Erasmus. "There have been no talks, there is no truth in that. I’m not sure where it started but I have not chatted to them. I am definitely not following Jacques.” The focus remains resolutely on this Saturday’s meeting with Andy Farrell’s side at the Stade de France with the two sides hoping to claim a win that would propel them to the top of the pool and avoid France in the quarter-finals.

The World Cup-winning coach has also confirmed that Handré Pollard, the out-half called up late on Sunday night for the injured Malcom Marx, will not feature against Ireland.

“No, he definitely won't be selected for this week unless we get two or three injuries. He's just joined us today, he's just played his first 40 minutes in 14/15 weeks for Leicester on Friday and that was the issue why we didn't bring him to the World Cup, because there was a lot of 'return to training' that wasn't done eventually and then 'return to play' only happened on Friday night.

"It's good to have him here, he must get up to speed with the intensity of our training sessions, slot in nicely. We've only played two games at this World Cup, I'm sure at some stage we'll have him back. But not this weekend."

Eben Etzebeth is a different story. There were fears that the talismanic, world-class lock would not be fit in time for this one after he suffered a shoulder injury in their opening defeat of the Scots but his powers of recovery seem to be easing those worries.

He will be ready.

South Africa caught everyone’s attention in their last World Cup warm-up game when they went for a 7/1 bench split between forwards and backs against New Zealand in London and a possible repeat hasn’t been ruled out for the weekend.

Erasmus, Nienaber, Felix Jones, Jean Kleyn and RG Snyman all have intimate knowledge of Irish rugby, it’s players and it’s coaches, but that’s unlikely to be a deciding factor given the breadth of information available on all teams these days.

Both camps know what makes the other tick and, in Ireland’s case, that owes no small amount to Johnny Sexton who has slotted back into the line-up at this tournament after months on the sideline with injury and suspension.

"He's a hell of a vital person, in my opinion,” said Erasmus. “When I was at Munster, I only beat him once, I think it was the December game at Thomond. Whenever Johnny's in the team, a lot of things happen and not just as a player. It's his aura and his presence.

“For a man at 38 to still score tries like he scored this weekend [against Tonga] and the previous time we played them… He grubbered through and out-sprinted one of our guys, so as long as he's physically out there, which he is, there's no doubt about him.”