Rudolph Lake

Johannesburg – Rassie Erasmus is the man who will be tasked with rescuing the Springboks.

It has been reliably learned that Erasmus will be appointed as South Africa under-20 coach in the next week or two and he will then also be used as strategic consultant and technical advisor of the struggling Springbok rugby team.

Erasmus will advise the Bok coaching team of Peter de Villiers, Dick Muir and Gary Gold when South Africa tour Britain and Ireland next month.

He will also be part of the Bok management team when the team defends its world crown in New Zealand next year.

Erasmus is currently director of coaching at Western Province and contracted to them until the end of 2012.

However, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) is apparently willing to stick their hands deep in their pockets to obtain the services of Erasmus and will negotiate with WP this week about getting him released for national duty.

Rugby bosses decided to call on Erasmus after they could not find replacements for Muir and Gold to assist De Villiers.

It was decided early last week to fire Muir and Gold, but they kept their jobs following unsuccessful attempts to replace them.

Muir, Gold and De Villiers met with SARU president Oregan Hoskins in Durban on Thursday evening to clear the air. It was then decided to call on Erasmus’s help.

It is believed that more specialists will be roped in to assist the Bok coaches going forward.

The possibility that former Wallaby coach Eddie Jones will again be part of South Africa’s World Cup campaign cannot be excluded.

Jones was part of Jake White’s triumphant World Cup management and has a lot of support in local rugby circles.

Sport24’s sources indicate that he will definitely be sounded out about his availability to help the Boks with their defence of the Webb Ellis Trophy.