Willie le Roux: the unseen hero who drove Rassie's Bok revolution

The fullback has been central to the Springboks' revival over the past eight years, but instead of getting credit, he has often been criticised unfairly. By Jon Cardinelli

- By Jon Cardinelli

Rassie Erasmus told a story about Willie le Roux earlier this week that served as a powerful lesson to every South African rugby coach, fan and critic.

Back when Erasmus was the Stormers director of rugby in 2010, the Cape franchise hosted Boland at Newlands in a preseason fixture. On that occasion, an unknown 20-year-old Boland flyhalf listed on the team sheet as Willem Jacobus le Roux made an impression with the speed of his distribution and the quality of his decision-making.

Afterwards, the media asked head coach Allister Coetzee whether the Stormers intended to sign this diamond in the rough. As it turned out, neither Coetzee nor Erasmus was impressed by Le Roux's performance and he eventually left the Western Cape to further his career with the Cheetahs.

As Erasmus admitted this week - some 15 years after the fact - sometimes there's more to a player than initially meets the eye. “I definitely made a mistake not backing him earlier in his career,” the Springbok coach said, after confirming that Le Roux will start against Italy in Gqeberha on Saturday, 12 July.

Le Roux will become South Africa's eighth Test centurion, following in the footsteps of Percy Montgomery, John Smit, Victor Matfield, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Beast Mtawarira and Eben Etzebeth.

It's hard to believe a coach of Erasmus' calibre let Le Roux slip through the net and that the player was nearly lost to the Boks for good after a disastrous 2016 Test season.

Indeed, Erasmus sounded more than a bit relieved when admitting to the mistake this past week. To say that it all turned out for the best is an understatement.

“When people don’t know him well, they might misread his emotional involvement in the game,” Erasmus said.

“At the start, when I didn’t know him well, I wondered about some of his reactions on the field. Then a coach overseas told me, ‘He just cares so much, he doesn’t hide his emotions.’