Rassie Erasmus’ success with the Springboks is far from immediate, with the head coach reaping the rewards of two decades of work.

That is the opinion of 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning winger Bryan Habana, who has spoken glowingly about Erasmus and his service to South African rugby.

The former flanker returned to South Africa in 2018 and went on to lead the Boks to World Cup victory in Japan 18 months later as the team’s head coach before moving into the director of rugby position, with Jacques Nienaber taking over as head coach. However, he remained closely involved with the team throughout and was reinstated as head coach following Nienaber’s departure to Leinster after the 2023 World Cup.

Many see the last eight years as Erasmus’ tenure with the Boks, but Habana highlights that his involvement goes all the way back to 2007 when he worked as an analyst for then-head coach Jake White. He was also involved in SA Rugby’s structures as the head of the mobi-unit and worked along with Nienaber to create the Elite Player Development program, which has produced several top players for the national teams.

Rassie Erasmus’ 20-year tenure with the Springboks

While he did have coaching stints at the Stormers and Munster throughout this period, Habana still sees Erasmus’ time in the SA Rugby structures as a 20-year tenure.

“What people don’t realise about Rassie’s tenure within South African Rugby is that he’s actually been in the system since 2007,” Habana stated in an interview with legendary Wales fly-half Dan Biggar on the Rugby Pod.

“I’ll never forget we had a pre-World Cup camp in Cape Town… Jake White had taken a second-string Springbok group to Australasia, and we had about 15/17 guys training. Rassie was like our technical analyst for that time period, and he was getting stuck in, making the backs do lineout drives and the forwards do backline players.

“He was with Pieter de Villiers in 2011 in New Zealand – he was within the director of rugby structure when Heyneke Meyer went to the 2015 World Cup, so he has become institutional within the ecosystem.”

Habana worked closely with Erasmus during their shared time at the Stormers, and while the ex-winger has hailed his coaching intellect and his constant innovation, he believes that the coach’s best attribute is how he creates alignment not only among players in the squad but with the administration too.

“What he’s incredibly good at is getting alignment throughout, from the administrators to the unions to the players to the age-group level rugby players coming through, and we see on this tour he’s brought under-20 players with him on tour; they might not play, but they get to taste that environment,” the 2007 World Rugby Player of the Year said.

“He has fostered this culture of ‘No player as an individual is ever greater than the squad’, but he’s got alignment with every player, whether they’re in South Africa, France, England, Ireland, or Japan; he has made success his mantra and whatever he needs to get done to get that right.”

He continued: “It’s a 20-year tenure, two decades that he’s been involved in the SA Rugby structures, so the culmination of success that we’ve seen over the last eight or nine years isn’t like immediate success. It’s actually been nurtured for a long time.

“Everyone knows he’s innovative; he says some things that we don’t always agree with, but you can only base his credentials on what he achieves: back-to-back World Cups, the most successful Springbok team in the history of South African rugby, and he’s done it with players that are maybe aging but experienced, but players that understand that no one player is greater than the success of the Springbok team.”

Tactical or psychological?

Biggar posed the question of whether Erasmus’ best attribute is tactical or psychological. For Habana, it’s a mixture of the two and his bravery in taking risks to do what will make the team successful.

“I’d reckon Rassie’s greatest achievement is that his psychological framework institutes innovative thinking far out, and he’s not scared to ruffle feathers,” he explained.

“I know many coaches sometimes struggle to say things to the media, and he has unfortunately experienced the consequences of some of those actions, but he’s always put success as the mantra, and he is not scared to do what needs to get done to make sure of that success. So whether it’s psychological, whether it’s innovation, whether it’s not giving two ticks about what someone thinks about how he does things, but also getting the correct alignment with each and every player.

“He has taken away a lot of the old-school thinking from a leadership perspective in South African rugby, where, like your five top leaders, they have dominated and said everything. He has said, like Siya Kolisi is captain; but if you’re not playing well, I’m going to take you off at half-time in a World Cup semi-final.”

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The influence of overseas coaches

Biggar interjected at this point, stating that “it takes a great coach to be able to have the confidence to do that as well, doesn’t it?”

“It takes a coach who has an inner belief and confidence in himself first and foremost,” Habana replied.

“What Rassie also hasn’t been scared to do in this tenure, particularly as head coach and director of rugby, is that he has never become stale. He has constantly brought in influences that allow continual growth and development.

“The Tony Brown effect now and Jerry Flannery – he has never stayed stagnant, whereas a lot of coaches try to keep things close to their chest, but he’s also willing to go outside of South African boundaries, which is amazing.”