Rassie Erasmus will return as head coach of South Africa through to the next Rugby World Cup after the departure of Jacques Nienaber to Leinster.
Erasmus was heavily involved in a second consecutive World Cup triumph for the Springboks last year having been head coach for their success at the previous tournament four years prior.
But with Nienaber gone his title will return to that previous role, with Erasmus having served as director of rugby at the 2023 event.
“I will be more hands-on at the field sessions,” Erasmus said.
“In my role as director of rugby in the last four years I continued to oversee the team structures and strategy in conjunction with Jacques and the other coaches, so it should be an easy transition back into the head coach role.”
Meanwhile Harlequins have confirmed defence coach Jerry Flannery will leave the club at the end of the month to take a coaching role with the back-to-back world champions.
Flannery’s possible departure was first reported in the Evening Standard last Monday and although this was backed up by Neil Fissler in his last ever Blindside Column for this publication, it had been expected to be confirmed later with Erasmus still in hospital.
Flannery has organised Quins’ defence to be the strongest this season, and director of rugby Billy Millard admitted his disappointed at the departure of the former Ireland hooker.
“We will be sorry to see Jerry go as he is a big character and can be very proud of his achievements at Harlequins,” Millard said.
“We wish him well as he moves into international rugby and continues to develop his career. He will always be welcome at The Stoop.
“For the rest of this season we have a very strong group of coaches and are very fortunate to have Assistant Defence Coach Jordan Turner-Hall with us, and the resources and structure to achieve our goals.”
Elsewhere in the new coaching team for South Africa recently-retired referee Jaco Peyper comes in to assist with discipline, while ex-New Zealand fly-half Tony Brown takes charge of the attack and Duane Vermeulen serves as a roving coach.
Vermeulen – who played in both of South Africa’s World Cup wins in 2019 and 2023 – will work across all Springbok national teams with Franzel September and Bafana Nhleko who are already performing similar work.
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