Rassie: The worst law change that could ruin the game
Rassie Erasmus is labelled as the ‘mastermind’ of the hybrid player, yet he has warned against a law change that could escalate this move in a ‘bad way’.
Erasmus, fronting up too the media at Springbok headquarters in the Plattekloof suburb of Cape Town, also revealed that it was aspiring All Black coach Tony Brown who promoted the idea of using midfielder Andre Esterhuizen on the flank.
The Bok coach played down his role in the most talked-about and successful experiments of 2025.
“I get a lot of credit for moving Andre [to flank], but it was Tony’s idea,” Erasmus said.
The Bok coach intimated that former national team captain John Smit also used the giant midfielder as a loose forward during Esterhuizen’s first stint at the Sharks.
Erasmus also said ‘common sense’ must prevail when looking at law changes.
“If you are going to depower the scrum, depower the maul, and depower the kicking game, we are just going to get more and more hybrid players,” he said.
“If general play is the most important thing, then Wilco Louw will get phased out,” he said of the role of powerful heavies like the gargantuan prop.
“There will be more guys like Schalk Brits who can play flank, hooker and No.8.
“Do you really just want players like that all over the place?”
The Bulls recently moved a wing to centre, and Erasmus used that as an example of a successful conversion to a utility player.
“Sebastian de Klerk played centre for the Pumas when they did really well in the Currie Cup,” the Bok coach said of the Bulls wing who moved to the midfield in recent weeks.
He added that moving players out of position is not always a wise move.
* (WATCH as Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus reveals which potential law changes could ruin the game…..)
“Marco [van Staden] is now playing hooker and flank.
“It’s awesome, and we don’t ask the franchises to do that.
“They do it themselves with a little bit of contact with us, but we must be careful with it.”
Erasmus got a not-so-subtle dig in for Matt Williams, best known for having led Scotland to 14 losses and being the head anti-Springbok choir boy.
“It’s nice because there are about 120 rucks in a game, 12 scrums, 16 line-outs, but if you take those 12 scrums away and it’s almost uncontested, then it would happen more and more but in a bad way.”
@JanDKrugby
@rugby365com
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