South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has taken to social media to tell the world why he is active on social media and regularly tweets.
Erasmus recently got into trouble with World Rugby for tweeting a series of posts where he seems to criticse the officiating in the Springboks’ lost Tests against Ireland and France.
World Rugby banned the 2019 World Cup-winning coach for two matches and barred him from being on social media for his actions.
However, Erasmus teased rugby followers on Twitter with a message earlier this week that read: “Lekka chat (15 min)” with a link to Vimeo for 30 November at 6pm.
And on Wednesday evening Erasmus was live on Vimeo, explaining his reasoning for being active on Twitter.
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In a 20 minute clip where Erasmus does all the talking he goes back to 2018 when he got involved with the Springboks on a full-time basis, and the slogan “Stronger Together” was created. The three pillars of the slogan involved the players and coaches and everything to do with rugby, followed by the media, followed by the rugby watchers and fans.
He says that while he initially viewed the media as the enemy, and was very much against social media, he eventually realised that he needed the media to get his message across to the fans.
“I realised you can’t live without the media,” he says. “And then social media came along. And this influenced the players.”
He goes on to say how big the impact of what was said on social media platforms about players, coaches, styles of play etc influenced the narrative and played on the players’ minds.
“If (as a coach) you’re not on top (of what is being said) and don’t understand, you will struggle to coach a team,” says Erasmus.
He concludes by saying it is important to connect with the person on the street.
