SA Rugby common supervisor for prime efficiency Dave Wessels has praised Rassie Erasmus for making a “golden period” of South African rugby.
Erasmus’ tenure – each as director of rugby and Springbok head coach – has delivered unprecedented dominance: back-to-back World Cup titles in 2019 and 2023, a British & Irish Lions collection victory in 2021, and consecutive Fort Rugby Championship triumphs in 2024 and 2025.
However Wessels says Erasmus’ affect stretches far past the Boks.
“Rassie and his group have actually created this golden period of South African rugby,” Wessels advised Planet Rugby. “Generally as followers, we don’t fairly recognize how particular it’s.”
READ: SA Rugby hints at Rassie succession plan
Wessels, who stepped into the newly created high-performance function in 2024, now oversees the Blitzboks, Junior Boks, Springbok Ladies, Springbok Ladies Sevens and SA U18 groups – buildings Erasmus helped form when he was nonetheless SA Rugby director of rugby.
“I’m blessed and was very fortunate that he gave me a chance a few years in the past,” stated Wessels, who first labored alongside Erasmus as a technical analyst on the Stormers in 2008.
“When he referred to as me about this job, it was very tough to say no. I’m happy that I didn’t. It’s been incredible, and I really feel privileged to be a part of it.”
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The ex-Western Drive and Melbourne Rebels head coach stated the success achieved by South Africa’s different nationwide groups in 2025 – the World Rugby U20 Championship title, the Blitzboks’ SVNS crown, and the Springbok Ladies reaching their first World Cup quarter-final – flows immediately from the efficiency setting Erasmus created.
“The issues that Rassie and the Springboks are doing have set such a excessive bar for everyone at SA Rugby,” Wessels stated. “There’s an actual power within the organisation. Everybody feels the accountability to deliver their A-game.”
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He additionally pointed to the readability Erasmus offers as a central pillar of success.
“He’s stored the squad contemporary, launched new faces, and so they’ve all carried out. He’s created an ecosystem of efficiency the place the expectations are so excessive, and everybody resonates with the aim: the Springboks deliver pleasure to a rustic that usually wants it.”
Wessels stated his mandate is straightforward: “We’re copying what works in Rassie’s setting and making use of it throughout our groups. If we get it proper, South Africa might be world champions in girls’s rugby as properly.”
Photograph: Gareth Everett/Getty Photos
