Two World Cups on, Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has rarely put a foot wrong since taking the reins in 2017.
The former Director of Rugby turned Head Coach had another remarkable year, winning eleven games from thirteen, edging out New Zealand to lift The Champions Cup, and defeating England, Scotland and Wales in their own back yard.
Aside from missing the last Autumn Series game against Wales, newly crowned World Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit was pivotal to another year of Springboks brilliance.
The 32-year-old has become one of Erasmus main disciples, but it took time for the Springbok coach to realise his potential.
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“I got it totally wrong with Pieter-Steph du Toit,” said Erasmus.
“I’d never worked with him or coached him before 2018, so all I had to rely on was my gut instinct when assessing his play. I thought he was physical in the Springboks’ 25-24 defeat against the All Blacks at Newlands in 2017. But I also thought he was poor defensively, missed a lot of tackles and ran too upright as a ball-carrier. I watched that Test and at the time thought I wouldn’t pick him to start for the Springboks.
“I had read that other coaches had raved about his strengths as a player and as an athlete. But that Test in Cape Town did nothing to change my mind of him as a player. He was big, physical and passionate, but I didn’t for a moment think I was watching an exceptional rugby player.
“I didn’t know Pieter-Steph as a person either, so at the start of the season, he certainly wasn’t in my ideal starting XV. Nothing changed during the alignment camps I had with all the Super Rugby squads. I found him to be very chilled in those early theory sessions when it came to discussing the season, the expectations the coaches and management had and what we wanted to achieve as a squad.
“The Springboks had to win again and play with conviction to win back the respect of the rugby world. They had to produce performances to convince the South African public that there was a passion for the Bok jersey and meaning in representing all South Africans.
“It is a privilege to play for one’s country and the coaching staff and management were clear in expressing this to the players in those early sessions. No one had a right to the jersey and the management were only going to invest in players who understood the privilege and were prepared to work for that privilege.
“My initial thoughts when meeting Pieter-Steph was that rugby was more a hobby than his passion or job. How wrong I was! He was chilled in those sessions and I wrongly took that as him not necessarily caring. I couldn’t have been more off the mark when it came to reading a player and a situation.
“We picked him in the squad because he had done some good things in Super Rugby, but as a coaching staff we felt there were many things not right with his game. We wondered if the defensive issues were because of a lack of understanding or because of playing under several defensive coaches, who all had a different approach.
