New Zealand-based journalist Gregor Paul argues Rassie Erasmus has crossed the line and World Rugby must stand up to him before he becomes bigger than the game.
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Writing for the New Zealand Herald, Paul argues the Springbok boss operates within rugby’s laws but outside its spirit, chasing marginal advantages through methods that have left him isolated among his coaching peers.
He points to a mounting list of incidents, from Erasmus’ hour-long video critique of referee Nic Berry during the 2021 British & Irish Lions series, to intimidating pre-match meetings with officials that prompted World Rugby to change its protocols
Paul also highlights a reshuffled Bok front row brought in shortly before kick-off of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry second Test, despite Erasmus naming two different XVs days earlier. He calls this pattern paranoid rather than clever, and says winning has bred arrogance and a sense of impunity in the Bok camp.
Paul says World Rugby should at minimum reprimand Erasmus for swearing in his post-match press conference last Saturday, arguing that some show of authority is needed.
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Rassie Erasmus likened to Lex Luthor
“Erasmus has become all-powerful in the global game, a genuine Lex Luthor figure whose … cunning genius has been to simultaneously unite swaths of the South African population behind the Springboks and sell them as the people’s team, while alienating himself from the global community with his sometimes erratic and ethically dubious behaviour,” he writes.
“The crime sheet is reaching epic proportions, and when it’s laid out, it makes quite the read.
“Erasmus has been one of the great actors in this grey space over the years, but now he seems to have lost sight of what constitutes good theatre.
“He was playing Lex Luthor as a kind of pantomime villain, but now he’s taken him up to the executive suite of LexCorp and turned him into a darker, more conniving, proper baddie.”
Originally published by SA Rugby Magazine.
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