RassieGate: Boks will have their 'water boy' on tour

INTERVIEW: The game’s most renowned ‘water boy’, Rassie Erasmus, is set to tour with the Springboks.

Just more than a week out from his World Rugby disciplinary hearing it was revealed that Erasmus will form part of South Africa’s year-end tour management squad.

Erasmus, the Director of Rugby, and SA Rugby will front up to a World Rugby hearing on October 30 and 31.

Erasmus and SA Rugby were charged by the world governing body after Erasmus produced an hour-long video criticising match officials for their performance in the Springboks’ 17-22 defeat in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in July.

Bok coach Jacques Nienaber revealed that Erasmus will again be a member of the management team when the 32-man squad depart for a pre-tour camp in France this coming weekend.

“Rassie is coming along with us on tour,” Nienaber told a virtual media briefing.

“He will fulfil his normal role, as he has done previously,” the coach said of the water boy duties Erasmus fulfilled during the B&I Lions tour.

Erasmus did not travel with the team to Australia for the Rugby Championship, after a storm erupted around his head in the wake of the infamous RassieGate video.

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* Meanwhile Nienaber revealed that the Boks will spend a week in France before travelling to Cardiff on October 31.

The Springboks will be without their overseas-based players for the week in France, as that falls outside the international window.

“We will have some training sessions,” Nienaber said of the French leg of the trip.

He added that they will also be attending some World Rugby arranged promotional events surrounding the 2023 World Cup.

The team will play three Test matches – against Wales in Cardiff (November 6), Scotland in Edinburgh (November 13) and England in London (November 20).

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