When Dave Wessels was a young man, working in the online media world and becoming increasingly absorbed by his passion of rugby coaching, he attended a coaching seminar run by Rassie Erasmus in Cape Town.
Erasmus is now the Springboks coach and will lead South Africa into the 2019 Rugby World Cup final against England in Tokyo.
Back then, in 2008, he was the coach of Western Province and the Stormers.
"I remember asking him at the end of the presentation just saying: 'I have never heard anyone speak about rugby like that before and I want to learn from you. I will sit under your desk, you don’t have to pay me a cent, you won’t even know I am there. I just want to absorb everything you say’,” Wessels told RUGBY.com.au earlier this year.
"He gave me his phone number, which I think he probably always regretted. I just hassled him and hassled him and eventually he said 'ya, listen, come in for the Currie Cup’."
Wessels, who was coaching rugby at a schools and tertiary level, ended up working as an analyst for Erasmus and an impressive array of assistants, some of whom are now with the Boss as well, like Matt Proudfoot and Jacques Nienaber.
“It was a huge amount of luck, to learn this flood of knowledge. I almost wish I could go back to it now with a better base of understanding, to be able to ask better questions,” Wessels said in the interview.
Erasmus, who’d played for the Springboks and come to Cape Town via his first coaching stint with the Cheetahs, went on to take the Stormers to the Super Rugby final in 2010.
As Wessels began to build his own coaching career with a move to the Brumbies in 2012 under Jake White, Erasmus took up roles with South Africa as a head of performance, before moving to Munster in 2016, where he helped revive the Irish province with a successful two seasons.
His return to South Africa in the role of Director of Rugby in 2017 saw Erasmus ultimately take over as Springboks head coach in 2018, following the axing of Allister Coetzee.
From the relative doldrums of no.6 in the world rankings and 11 Tests won from the previous 22, Erasmus then took the Boks on a steady rise back to the top of the tree; overseeing wins over New Zealand, Australia, England and France, and after a Rugby Championship crown in 2019, a perfectly timed World Cup campaign that has ended in the Boks’ third appearance in the final.
Wessels is one man who is not in the least bit surprised about the impact of Erasmus, who he rates as one of the smartest men he’s ever come across.
"He is a very intelligent guy and super organised,” Wessels told RUGBY.com.au this week.
"But I think his secret is he is pretty charismatic and I think most people look at the Springboks at the moment and they see a team enjoying each other’s company and enjoying their rugby and working hard for each other and he has been able to bring that out, a lot through his personality.”
Erasmus became famous as an innovative coach when at the Cheetahs; known for sitting on top of the stadium roof in Bloemfontein with coloured paddles that would send coded messages to players and assistants running onto the field.
The paddles later gave way to a lightbox, which earned him the nickname “DJ Rassie”.
Wessels says his impressions of Erasmus were not so much about creating outrageously new ways to play rugby but to understand the game as it is being played and officiated, and the strengths of his players, and to then thoroughly maximise the opportunity to win within those boundaries.
"I remember him being very into statistics and very into the numbers in the game, and I think probably you can see that by the way the Springboks are playing,” Wessels said.
"To him, he doesn’t create the rules, his job is to win by the rules that are set for him. At times he has come in for some criticism for the conservative way they’ve been playing but it’s been very successful and I think he would have to put a lot of work into what makes a winning team, and how to deliver that.
“He has done it as a player and for a long time now as a coach. Like most coaches, he has probably had some disappointments and learned from those things as a coach and I guess the funny thing is the margins are so small.
"In international rugby, if you get your timings slightly wrong, as Joe Schmidt said or it may have been Warren Gatland, the margins for error are so small. And I think one of the things Rassie has got right is just the timing of the way he has brought the squad together and having them peak at the right time.
"A lot of the guys have come back from Europe, guys like Faf and those sort of players are obviously playing very well.”
Wessels believes Erasmus could have been a successful CEO of any business he chose to dive into. And that may ultimately end up happening, with Erasmus stepping down from his head coach duties after the final and returning to his oversight role at SARU.
But first there is the final to be played, and a fascinating clash with England coach Eddie Jones; who certainly shares at least two traits with Erasmus - the charisma and the obsession for fine detail.
While it is an obvious strength, Wessels says it is a mistake to categorise the Erasmus Springboks as just bash-and-barge; and all physical power.
"Both teams create pressure in different ways,” Wessels said.
"A lot of people think of the Springboks as a team that just bashes but in actual fact I think they create a lot of decision making and mental pressure on the opposition, through some subtle things they do and that makes them more deceptive because of some of the things they run, the trick plays they might run out of a lineout, which in turn makes them more effective.
"They do a lot of things in the game which are quite smart, and don’t rely on physicality that create that pressure. And over the course of the game, Rassie also knows he has a six-two bench and that’s a great asset up his sleeve.
That also allows him to bring an almost entirely new forward pack in the second half, so he can play a very physical brand and maintain that for the full 80 minutes because of the way he has been able to configure his bench.
"And he is able to do that because Frans Steyn is able to cover a bunch of positions. And he is also able to kick goals from his own half, so at the back end of the game, how many World Cups have been won a drop goal or a big penalty at the back end of a game?
They have a guy who can kick them from anywhere, coming off the bench. So as a coach, you feel confident you have got plenty of bases covered."
Wessels was in Japan on Melbourne Rebels’ business this week and said he was heartened to get reminder of rugby’s immense global reach and popularity, amid times when the local verdict on rugby can lean towards the doom and gloom.
But the prospect of a TV audience in the hundreds of millions is also a factor in the final, believes Wessels.
“Just the energy that is there at the moment is also going to put a lot of pressure on the players,” he said.
"So it will be interesting to see how they handle it. There’d be a couple of hundred million people watching it.
"That can cause players to do funny things. It is going to be an interesting game.”
Wessels got a chance to appreciate the Springboks’ last World Cup win in 2007 when he covered the tournament for his SARugby.com website as a member of the media.
With a friend’s connection to Schalk Burger, he also got a chance to celebrate with White’s team after they beat England in the final in Paris.
"When the guys got back to the team hotel we somehow snuck in there,” Wessels laughed.
"We celebrated as if we’d won the Cup ourselves.”
"The funny thing about that World Cup is South Africa won the first game convincingly against England and everyone thought England were gone. But there they were in the final. I guess when you’re playing every week, under pressure, you don’t have a huge amount of time to recover. So things can change pretty quickly.
"The interesting thing for me is England didn’t play France because of the typhoon so they had that week off, and then they’ve also had a seven day turnaround where the Springboks have had six.
"In terms of a physical and mental recovery, they probably have the slight upper hand going into the final.”
Or do they? Did Erasmus have South Africa play so conservatively against Wales with that in mind? What colour paddle is box kick anyway?
Two coaches at the top of their craft go at it on Saturday - Fast Eddie and DJ Rassie. Should be a cracker.
