Rassie Erasmus deserves acclaim as the greatest coach of them all, writes CLINTON VAN DER BERG.
Forget the spreadsheets for a moment, because on paper alone this argument doesn’t even go to Rassie Erasmus.
Steve Hansen owns the higher win percentage. But rugby has been settling this debate the wrong way for years, chasing a single stat instead of asking what a coach actually built.
Back-to-back World Cups. A win rate nearly 14 points clear of the Springboks’ own history. A nation once fractured, now standing behind one team. No spin, no theatre, just a dry, unglamorous tactician who rewired the sport from the inside and dared the rest of the world to keep up.
The numbers alone are brutal. His 74.6% win rate, stretched across 55 Tests in charge, is well clear of the Springboks’ historical mark when he took over. Four losses in 29 matches across the past two seasons.
These aren’t the returns of a lucky cycle, they’re the signature of a system built to last, engineered by a mind that treats rugby not as tradition but as a puzzle to be solved.
The Bomb Squad, the six-two split, the game plans tailored ruthlessly to whoever stands in front of him. Erasmus doesn’t tinker at the edges of the sport. He rewires it, and the rest of the world is playing catch-up.
Yes, he has stumbled. The Lions series video was a graceless, self-inflicted wound, a rare moment where the street fighter in him overpowered the strategist.
But redemption has been total. The chaos of that crazy Covid season has curdled into irrelevance next to what followed: sustained excellence, another World Cup, a coaching identity so distinct it’s now studied and revered.
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But separate Erasmus from the win column entirely, and the case only grows stronger.
Consider what he actually built: a rugby nation stitched back together. He handed the captaincy to Siya Kolisi, a call that demanded not just rugby judgement but real courage, in a country still carrying the scar tissue of its broken, divided history.
It worked. It didn’t just work on the scoreboard; it worked in the stands, in the taverns, in the townships and the suburbs alike, where people who agreed on almost nothing else agreed on this team. That is not coaching. That is nation-building with a whistle.
Graham Henry professionalised New Zealand rugby. Hansen owns the sport’s best win percentage. Carwyn James conquered New Zealand once, gloriously, and never again. Each is a titan. Honourable mentions, too, to Jake White, Clive Woodward, Kitch Christie, Warren Gatland and Fred Allen.
WATCH: Boks rave about record-breaking Rassie
None, however, carried the weight Erasmus carries, in a country where rugby success and social cohesion were never guaranteed to arrive together, and delivered both.
Plain-spoken. Relentless. Utterly original. Rassie Erasmus isn’t just the best coach of his era. He’s the best of any era.
Is Rassie Erasmus the greatest rugby coach of all time?
Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images
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Rassie Erasmus deserves acclaim as the greatest coach of them all, writes @ClintonV
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