Peter O’Mahony reveals some fascinating details about “mental” Rassie Erasmus at Munster
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Mental.
Former Munster captain Peter O’Mahony has revealed some fascinating details about Rassie Erasmus and his time at Munster.
The double World Cup-winning coach, who led the Springboks to another Rugby Championship title over the weekend, joined Munster back in 2016 while Anthony Foley was the Head Coach.
Rassie initially came in as Director of Rugby, before Foley’s tragic passing forced him to take charge of the team. He immediately transformed the southern province, leading them to a final and a semi-final.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby, O’Mahony says Rassie was “mental” but exactly what the province needed.
“Yeah, he’s completely mental, like,” O’Mahony said.
“He’s mad, but was exactly what we needed at the time.
“When he came in, Axel was there, and obviously, when Axel passed, we were completely lost. He hadn’t really planned on coaching at all.
“Even when Axel was there, he was up in the HPC, and he would look on – he wouldn’t be on the pitch.
“Then Axel passed away, and Rassie had to take the forwards, but he was just the exact coach we needed at the time. We needed someone to get rid of the bull**** that was in the club.
“He went hard at basics, he went hard at people turning up to training properly, and he was just the tonic Munster needed at the time. He was brilliant.
“Unbelievably different way of going about things, if you compare him to a Joe Schmidt or Andy Farrell – a completely different character – but incredibly impressive style.”
O’Mahony highlighted Rassie’s brilliant man-management and no-nonsense attitude in particular.
“I remember when he first came in and he said: ‘What do you need? What’s going on at the club?’ He set up stuff like family boxes. As good as Munster is at stuff, there were no partners’ boxes,” O’Mahony said.
“He put on a creche for guys with kids. He was like, ‘What do you need to not worry about anything else so you could perform at the weekend?’ We were like, ‘we need this, that and the other’, and he went, ‘done, I’ll sort that, you leave that with me’.
“No excuses, no bull****. There were fellas who used to spend time on the sideline with knocks on a Monday who didn’t fancy training, so he put a tag on them.
“You can see the same policy with South Africa, if you can’t train Monday, you’re not available for selection for the weekend. You rock up Monday, even if you’re 60 per cent or 70 per cent, if you’re not on the pitch, you’re not being selected.”
