South Africa will have some fresh faces in their coaches box for the summer test series with two new coaches coming into the set up to support to now full time head coach Johan ”Rassie” Erasmus with Jerry Flannery and Tony Brown joining up to replace Felix Jones who is now the England defence coach and Jacques Nieneber who is now with Leinster alongside Leo Cullen for the next two years at least.
Flannery and Tony Brown have signed on until the end of the 2027 RWC which will be in Australia in 3 a half years’ time. Jerry Flannery has recently been with Harlequins and Tony Brown has spent time with Japan at the recent World Cup in France.
Both men will look to add something new to South Africa although what you can add to a double World Cup winning squad is questionable but I suppose a third straight RWC title is the aim along with a few Rugby Championships between now and 2027 wouldn’t go a miss…
Duane Vermuelan will take up a role within SA Rugby and work with Erasmus and his now completed coaching ticket to set the course and stall out for the next few years.
The director of Rugby role will be made redundant but you can be sure SA Rugby won’t forget it if the right person becomes available and they see fit to re-introduce the role. Erasmus will report direct to the SA chief executive from now on.
From an Irish perspective it will be interesting to see how Mr Flannery can work his mind to stop Ireland in two games in July in SA. Munster as an organisation will see a large number of coaches that held varying roles over the past 10 to 12 years with the club in new positions in the International game.
Flannery with SA, Jones with England, Jason Holland is with Scott Robertson in NZ and as has been suggested Stephen Larkham could yet feature in an Australian coaches box with Joe Schmidt. So as the 6 Nations head to round 2 a number of other sides are getting themselves geared for action later in 2024….