The topic of transformation at the Springboks has always been seen as a taboo one, but head coach Rassie Erasmus and his management team embracing it has put the world champions on a different path to success.
The open-book policy of Erasmus and his assistant coaches has put so much belief in their players that since his return in 2018, there has been no sound made about the lack of transformation, something that has preceded his reign.
It’s because Erasmus decided to tackle the elephant in the room head-on when he returned to South Africa to take the coaching reigns and help the Boks out of a deep, dark hole they found themselves in after 2017.
The Springbok coach has learnt from the mistakes of his predecessors and that is allowing the team to thrive, and it doesn’t matter who he selects on a specific weekend to play. And for the Boks, transformation is not just about who is selected on the day, but also how the coaches empower the players and allow them to make mistakes as long as they learn from them.
In the past, mistakes in the Bok set-up would see players be discarded after one or two Tests and never selected again. But not in the time of Erasmus and former head coach Jacques Nienaber.
“We are well-equipped by the coaches to play our role. We are confident and we can go out there and play. The guy next to you trusts you and he knows you are not just here because of your skin colour.”
Captain Siya Kolisi perfectly explained just how Erasmus goes about making sure the team is transforming and winning at the same time. Of course, playing under various Bok coaches, Kolisi speaks from a place of knowing.
“The coaches put guys in the team who they know are good enough to be there, but then they up-skill us,” Kolisi said about transformation in the Erasmus era.
“In the past, they would say black guys are not good at catching high balls. Coach Rassie picked black and coloured guys at wing, coach (Mzwandile) Stick teaches them every single time, he calls them the flyers (for plucking high balls out the air), they are just flying after every training session.
“Everybody knew me for my running game when I started. Then my game changed, I had to tackle, do breakdown (work) and run back.
“They coached me on that. Then I became that player and I love doing that.
“You can’t just put people there and say ‘go win’ and then you have one bad game and some guys you never see again. That happened in the past.
“Now, though, we are well-equipped by the coaches to play our role. We are confident and we can go out there and play. The guy next to you trusts you and he knows you are not just here because of your skin colour.
“This is what this management team has done differently to anybody else. The most important thing is they have been open and honest.”
The Boks are flying high after completing four wins in a row over New Zealand for the first time in the professional era. They claimed the Freedom Cup last weekend and took one step closer to winning the Rugby Championship for just the second time under Erasmus.
They need three points from their last two Tests against Argentina later this month to win the crown.