Awards snub: achievements of Bok coaches cannot be ignored

Rassie Erasmus may be overlooked for awards, but he and his fellow coaching staff continue to take rugby in new and innovative directions. By Jon Cardinelli

- Jon Cardinelli

The Springboks have dominated Test rugby for the past three seasons.

During this period, Pieter-Steph du Toit (twice) and Malcolm Marx have been recognised with World Rugby Player of the Year awards, but the South African coaches have been snubbed consistently by the game’s governing body.

Back in 2023, Jacques Nienaber became only the second coach since the advent of the awards in 2001 to miss out the Coach of the Year accolade after winning a World Cup.

More recently, Rassie Erasmus — the architect of the South African rugby revival and the man behind a series of innovations that have propelled the Boks to unprecedented heights — has been overlooked, despite guiding the national side to 22 wins in 26 Tests over the past two seasons.

France Sevens coach Jérôme Daret was named Coach of the Year after Les Bleus won gold at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and England Women’s coach John Mitchell received the accolade after steering his side to the 2025 World Cup title in September.

Daret and Mitchell are certainly worthy recipients of a Coach of the Year accolade, and it is worth noting that World Rugby recognised the respective achievers — players, coaches, referees across the respective genders and codes for 20 consecutive years.

But since 2021, World Rugby has recognised one coaching recipient across the genders and codes while continuing to award individual men and women across all 15s and Sevens categories.

The move has baffled stakeholders and lent substance to the conspiracy theory that World Rugby has never forgiven Erasmus for his actions during the 2021 British & Irish Lions tour, which involved a savage assessment of referee Nic Berry in the wake of the first Test.

Setting the trends

Whether you believe that or not, there doesn’t seem to be a logical explanation for why the awards are structured one way for the coaches and another for the players.