Former England fly-half Stuart Barnes believes that Rassie Erasmus is one of the sharpest coaches in the game and that he has turned the Springboks into an intelligent team.

South Africa are renowned for their physicality, abrasive approach to their game and set-piece excellence but Barnes feels that under Erasmus, things have changed with their side’s intellect shifting them away from their bully tag.

Smart, not brave

Writing in his column for The Times, Barnes agreed with All Blacks boss Scott Robertson’s view that Erasmus was not brave but smart to make 10 changes to his starting XV for the second Test against Australia after winning the first game convincingly.

Erasmus made the changes as he continues to build depth ahead of the 2027 World Cup as South Africa aims to become the first nation to win a hat-trick of Rugby World Cups.

Barnes zoned in on the selection of rising star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who started both games against the Wallabies and is set to retain the number 10 shirt against the All Blacks and has praised Erasmus for his long-term vision.

“Once derided as the game’s global bully, the Springboks have reinvented themselves as the cleverest of rugby thinkers,” the ex-fly-half wrote.

“Erasmus’s clarity of long-term thinking has played a seminal role in his and his team’s 2019 and 2023 successes.

“Despite the defeat at home by Ireland, the reigning world champions have five wins from six games and an undoubted fluency to add to their attacking ambition post-World Cup… The combination of style and success enables Erasmus to illustrate the intellect of Springbok rugby, time and again.”

While Barnes was full of praise for the Springboks head coach, he did highlight Erasmus’ ‘stunning error’ in the World Cup semi-finals where he opted to start Manie Libbok over Handre Pollard.

“Everyone knew the rain was coming. It levelled down the semi-final, allowing England’s fast defence to neuter the previously impressive all-round South African game. Libbok is a lovely player to watch but sometimes the elements get a grip on a game. The brave decision to start the player with the poetry at his fingertips was not smart,” he added.

Denny

Thanks for the article.    I am worried about Mozart's well-being after reading his - he may have  seizure as a resul t of this article.      

I said Rassie was smart way back when he was coaching Free State. 

Beeno years ahead of the oaks. 

As for Mozzietard he hopes, once again, that the wee abs beat the Boks. 

Very interesting Bok side. 

Don’t worry about me Wanker…..I’m in Seville tonight eating a little Tapas fare. As for the Boks….take away Kolbe and Arendse and all that cleverness evaporates. Ireland stopped our maul and we lost, that tells you how far we have progressed. Fortunately the ABs  look even worse. 

Oh wow so there is no cleverness in Willie, Willemse, Am, Pollard and Sacha?

Ireland never stopped anything we dominated them in the first test, fucked up the first half of the second test only to dominate them again in the second half and then throw it away thanks to v Staaden

We dominated 3 of the 4 halves in that series despite having lightweights Mostert and Kwagga starting and lost the second test thanks to a drop kick

Barnes, Horan, Kirwan and Wilson are all spot on about Rassie and the Boks

Rassie the rugby genius

The combination of Rassie and Tony Brown is the best thing in rugby right now.

2 masterinds that compliment each other - a forward and a back.
As rugby players they both had more brains than natural abilities, perhaps why they are good coaches. 

Lets hope their is no Razor antics, and Brown and Rassie continue until at least the next world cup. 

Rassie was a very good player

Rassie had 36 tests and was very good but but he was not a phenominal atthele. 

Like the speed of say Bobbie Skinstad or Joe Van Niekerk. or the power of Vermuelen over the ball or Steph Dutoit as a ball carrier. 

The combination of Rassie and Tony Brown is the best thing in rugby right now.

Ouch! 

ManwithoutaWilli Stick, backline coach, doesn't get a mention?

As with the Bools….when Arendse was injured they were nothing. Our attack is still essentially a counter attack. The creative stuff that the rest provides is 10% of our attacking threat. Deny those counter attacking opportunities and the Brown/Eluckmiss threat grinds to a halt. 

We are early in the Year of Hype…..next year is the Year of Reality.

Stick with moz in Seville!

Stick with Mozzie. Bwahahahahahahaha. That is about as daft as it comes! 

Stick with negative Moz who knows fuck all when it comes to rugby

Counter attacking only - my arse

Tries this year against competitive opponents 

Ireland 1…Arendse  and Kolbe….counter attack

Ireland 2…8 penalties/ zero tries

Oz 1…..Arendse 2…counter attack/ Dud Toit, Kwagga phase play set up by counter attack/ Kolisi maul.

Oz 3…Fassi/counter attack/Marx 2 tries maul/ van Staden 1 try maul.

….

There isn’t one try in the bunch which came from constructive passing movements not launched by turnover ball. The try Arendse scored from the Zulu offload was the nearest we came. But that was still a run from broken play.

So Moz which side does score loads of tries from structured phase play???

Ireland, NZ and France….Oz used to before they collapsed, another thing which has made Eluckmiss, a downturn in NZ, Oz and England. Ireland has had an upturn and has a commanding lead over us during E’s tenure. France is the one team offering stronger opposition than historically that we have beaten.

Nevertheless, Ireland, NZ and France have forwards who offload and backs with double wing/wrap around attacks…..we have the brilliance of Kolbe and Arendse.

Rome wasn’t build in one day and so far it’s obvious that we are trying to run more with structured attack….not always succeeding….our midfield combination is not exactly the most gifted and at a later stage a 12 willemse 13 Moodie can be a better fit with Sacha…..also giving AE a extended run at 12 can also be a positive change.

Oh what absolute rubbish name the abundance of tries these sides scored off structured attacking play

You are sucking this shit out of your thumb as per usual

Moz why the hell would we want to stick with you when our side is number one in the rankings and has just won back to back WC’s under the same coach playing his brand of rugby.

Given these facts why on earth would anyone choose to stick with the most negative Bok supporter on the planet?

Unless I was completely rugby ignorant or a complete fool, why would I stick with Moz?

It’s not mandatory Dave you can go with your instincts and be embarrassed as the facade of this 31 year old team crumbles.  There is nobody in sight for the tight five who is as nearly as good as any of the geriatric WC incumbents.

As per usual you are completely wrong

The only irreplaceable forward in the tightfive is Eben and let’s face it if RG ever proved he could stay injury free at 29 he would be as close to Eben as ever

At loosehead we have Ox and Steenkamp both as good as Kitshoff - you never rated Kitshoff

Marx has only just turned 30

Wilco Louw and Thomas are as good as Malherbe - you never rated Malherbe

At 5 we have the joke that is Mostert fuck me the local pub number 5 could be a better option than him. Then there is Lood who is far better than Mostert but in Ruben v Heerden we have a better option than Lood and definitely useless Mostert

There is so much young talent about - not to mention Wessels, Grobelaar, Andre Hugo Venter, Sadie, Hanro Jacobs, Klopper, Jason Jenkins, Moerat , Andre Smith, Ruan Vermaak and JF v Heerden

The Bok tightfive moving forward is in great hands

Very good young stock I agree. But when will Rassie start investing in these younger locks? He is trying with Nortje but then after that fails to make better choices like Ruben etc. The sooner we start playing with a younger tight Five, the better.

The key is when it’s the right time to bring the younger players in.

Rome wasn’t built in one day(exactly right, we're actually starting to play some rugby now after being stuck in the Laager for decades))  and so far it’s obvious that we are trying to run more with structured attack(Disagree on that bit, our attack is coming from broken play but please show me a team whose attack is based on structured play)

Mozrt - the great rugby  expert cannot be denied  - he has no idea about rugby - but pretended he knows.    Whenever he tried to oppose real experts praise Eramus  he countered it by some theory he developed in his own prejudiced mnd a load of shit.   So now he is hoping for the Sprigboks to lose against the AB's and his description as to what happened during games can best be descibed as farcical.      

Once again….I’m not wishing anything for Bok rugby, except a complete game. We have the athletes but they are coached from father’s knee to skop when in doubt….it’s poisoned our rugby for decades.

Disappointingly our WC final in 2023 was way less satisfying than our win in 2019 There was no progress in 4 years. Now we have a more adventurous coaching staff and the media declared victory.  

What I see is a bit more intent, an exciting new player in Zulu and the green light to try a few more things. That intent wilted in the second Irish test where we scored 8 penalties and has to be tested in adversity.

In terms of new skills as yet I see nothing. The key to France, the ABs, Ireland and yes, the Bargies….is their forwards can breach the line with skillful offloading. That creates the motion off regular ball as opposed to the motion which is gifted with turnover ball. 

Again I sense some desire to do this, but nothing coordinated as we see from the Irish.  Australia demonstrates importing a famous coach who has succeeded with another team, doesn’t guarantee he will pull it off with the next team.

So I remain unconvinced that we have turned a corner. What I have never doubted is we have the athletes to play an effective ball in hand game if we can overcome our instincts to go back to the rugby lager the moment anything goes wrong.

NZ score tries from broken play not from structured play and if they do score a try from structured play it would be a rarity not the norm.

Structured play is from set pieces like the scrums or line out. Where the team moves the ball systematically thru multiple phases to create scoring opportunities….

There is definitely moments already where we are trying to do exactly that….like I said before we are not always successful, but it will come…..I for one are more happy with the recent movements in that general direction.

It’s logical that it will take time to get there, but the foundation is being laid ATM. It’s not like Kolbe and Arendse is doing everything to score the tries.

It’s the lead up to the moments where they receive that final pass, that enables them to score….team effort.

You would have to look at the Ozzies from the 90's and 2000's as the masters of structured play. I put it down to a cultural thing starting with when a kid first picks up a ball......unlike SAFFA kids kicking is verboten, the kid learns to run and pass. Great players like Gregan and Larkham fell off the back of running rugby greats like Mark Ella and David Campese etc but the thing is every player in the team read from the same page and by so doing they took their game to another level. They manipulated defences and turned it into a fine art....their set piece was par for the course, never a strength. I've never seen better rugby being played by any other team from any other country.

Will we ever get there? I'm not getting my hopes up.

" The key is when it’s the right time to bring the younger players in. " - there is no reason why it shouldn’t happen now already.

Great players like Duane, Eben, Marx etc., also started some where. The more exposure they got ( Game Time) the better they became as player’s.

Rassie has a massive tendency to procrastinate and hang on to players for to long.

Right now with players like Eben, Pieter still going strong, is the time to throw in the new and see which players has got the goods with the back up from the regular stalwarts.

A year down the line things might look different and the now has been wasted.

100% 

As I've said, it really is only a three year preparation, by the 4th year he should have settled combinations and a settled team with a tweak here and there, of utmost importance is to add as many caps to the young players heads.

Mozrt

The follwing is really funny coming from you:-

"Once again….I’m not wishing anything for Bok rugby, except a complete game. We have the athletes but they are coached from father’s knee to skop when in doubt….it’s poisoned our rugby for decades."

That style of rugby ws aways drilled into people by coache like White - who was clueless of  selection and coaching of Rugby.    You always called it "traditional   SA Rugby".    whatevethat meant and when coaches like Meyer - also a supporter of "tradiional SA Rugby because he kne nothing other than 10 man rugby and with Mrne Steyn at flyhalf - you praise t to high heaven.

For Springbok backline playes to score tries was depending entirely on talents like Habana - for the rest it was virtually non-existent and the only strategy those coaches used to score tries as driving mauls.

Came along Erasmus and suddenly the whole scene change in 2018 the Springboks backline players scored more tries han the whiole team sored in 2012 - 2 real comparable years.   Erasmus started to implement  "15 man" rugby.   In the 2019 RWC final the Springboks sscored two tries - the only RWC won were all SA  win by kicking at goal.   You saw nothing wrong about it in 2007 - when the backline was disfunctioal and accordng to John Smit the game plan used in the 2007 made no provision for scoring of tries at all and strategies to achieve that - yet you promoted White as coach and from day one of his appointment you never stopped criticizing  and attacking Erasmus as coach.   You must have made Erasmus at lesat 10 postings a week on theat one.

You also aside from Erasmus hated players like De Allende and Du Toit.   In the case of for instance blamed  Du Toit and you went totally ballistic and blamd=ed Du Toit for corin f the try when you describe  incidents  where they wer not even near o be involved you wnt ballistic - ie the Welsh try in 2019 semi-final.you blamed Du Tot for scoring of that try - wich was traditional Mozart BS.    Wheneve yu describe incidents in matches it was traditio nal Mozat BS descriptions.   When players ran through missed Mostert tackles they were blamed on Du Toit.

After years of BS coming from you when Erasmus started to indtroduce changes you missed out on it and attacked  him endlessly,   So why the sudden change fom traditioanl SA Rugby" support  and mking out that the Springboks play that version for yours - became the  traditional Mozart BS?    

When real rugby experts saw what was happening according to you they were wrong and you were right.   So what must we expect from you  - mostly distortion and lies about what happened in actual matches.    So everyone else is wrong and you are right.   Unbelievable Mozart BS.                                

Why do waste your time addressing me with these long posts….I rarely read much of them and never read all of them. Send me the abridged version and perhaps I will respond. And for heaven sake man, stop whining.

Who knows what goes on behind the scenes. All we know is who we see selected and what happens on the field.

It looks to me like Rassie is selecting himself into a corner. To be fair to him, he did select Manie, who is by no means a defensive player. And it backfired on him massively...in a WC!?

But he's seems to be continuing that path with Sacha, Williams, Willemse, Moodie...

None of those guys are crazy defenders or big hitters.

And it's risky play, really. I think most of those players would walk into most international sides. So if this seeming shift in style does go wrong, he won't be able to blame the talent/depth.

If this group does do well, be careful world because there'll be many more Willemses, Sachs's and Moodies coming through.

Maybe we'll get what we've wanted for so many years, Moz.

The summary - you suffer from EDS and has a similar poblem to Mugabe Harris which emtails that your hatred of Erasmus, De  Allende and Du Toit caused you to lie about them.    You were a vicious supporter of 10 man rugbygame  -  called by you "traditional SA Rugby"  When it came to the famous chang in your approach - now you or pretent to support playing of a comprehenvice team game. so that turnaround an is now Mugabe Mozart       

There is no reason why this new group of players won’t do well.

They all have heaps of talent, they have a new attack coach and a formidable Forward pack to give them the foundation to flourish.

There biggest enemy is lack of game time, cohesion. I can understand that the Bok coaches wants to win outside of WC years and build that win percentage.

But a balanced approach is necessary and I think next year’s international season

( Especially team Selections!!) will be of vital importance. Will we sink or swim? Will the right combinations be implemented and can we keep our overseas coaches!! Here is hoping for the best.

Wanker it must be scary to be confused all the time…you have my sympathies. And if he was reading this, I dare say, Mugabe’s sympathies. Drink some warm milk and put some butter on your Marie biscuit and things will look better.

Moz comparing the 2019 and 2023 final and saying there has been no progression tells me how out of touch with reality you are.

Firstly the route to the finals were far different, 2023 being the most difficult route by some distance in the history of the competition and secondly the 2023 final was played in the pouring rain

Given these facts and concluding there has been no progression is a joke

I've had reservations about Rassie and I've expressed them but you know every time I critiqued him he pointed me to his trophy cabinet.

Now that's some egg....and then some.

Mozaft

Ytu to get way from your past - like Mugab e Haris you changed your tune and what you supported - you now ondemn.    You are just repeaing aall your bS,   Mozart said their wa no progress in the 2019 WC  wirhwr and eventhough in the finals in 2007 you did not raise hat abysmal final you rated it higher than the 2019 final.   

You once claimed that you identify deficiencies better than real rugby experts     Pity because your analysis is way out of reality - so it sa ctually a wast to actually respond to your BS.     

I claim we played a much better game against 15 men in 2019 than we played against 14 men in 2023.perhaps the best measuring stick is the one you always use…we scored 2 tries against 15 men in 2019 and zero tries against 14 men in 2023. As for the weather….we scored 4 tries in much worse weather against OZ and NZ scored one and had one called back with 14 men.

It’s all balls, to use a technical term, our WC final in 2019 was far superior.

Wasn’t our win far superior because we played the Poms that folded? Beating the AB was tough, as they a far better team than Eng, even with only 14 men?

Or you could say the Poms we beat in 2019 had just beaten a better NZ team with 15 players on the park not 14. But I agree England never really showed for the final. 

The Bokke won...2 in a row...enough for me.

For fuck sake it’s was pouring with rain

Wake the fuck up Moz