Springboks head coach believes there is little appetite in the northern hemisphere for his team to join the competition

Rassie Erasmus has claimed that the Six Nations do not want South Africa to join the northern hemisphere’s competition.

The inclusion of the Springboks has been frequently discussed in recent years following the introduction of South African club sides to the United Rugby Championship and Champions Cup.

Asked whether he could see the Springboks joining the Six Nations in the future, Erasmus suggested there was little appetite in the northern hemisphere for his side to be included based on his experience coaching Munster in Ireland.

“Us joining the Six Nations, I’m not sure how that sits with other people,” Erasmus said. “We admire the competition and when I was at Munster I realised how big it is. For me, having been there for 18 months or so, I’m not sure if the Six Nations and northern hemisphere would want us in there.

“There are a lot of traditions that are a little bit more valuable than us just fitting in and thinking we can just go into a competition that has a hell of a lot of heritage, so I’m not what the answer is there.”

Erasmus however did suggest that the Rugby Championship – played between August and October – should be moved to the same window as the Six Nations between February and March. “I think it would have sorted out a lot of problems, player load and injury wise, with the URC and European Cup it would definitely free up a lot of weeks for us,” Erasmus said. South Africa are set to face Argentina in one of those Rugby Championship fixtures at Allianz Stadium later this year.

Erasmus also discussed the return of Felix Jones, with the former England defence coach rejoining the Springboks staff following his short spell with England which came to an end last December. Erasmus admitted it was “fantastic” to have Jones back because South Africa “never wanted him to leave”, after Jones left to be closer to his family. Erasmus revealed that Jones’s family this time will move to South Africa from Ireland to join him.

“To get it out of the way, I don’t want people to think it was all a plan to get Felix over there and then to come back again. We all hoped it worked out for him. I can’t comment on why it didn’t work out with England. Getting him back for us is fantastic because we never wanted to lose him,” said Erasmus.

Defining Jones’s role, Erasmus said that his focus would be on “the small things” across each department, while also working closely with South Africa’s laws coach Jaco Peyper to ensure the Springboks “try to get on top of [them] and be the first country to implement [them] as quickly as possible”.

Erasmus continued: “Those are the kind of things where Felix has an edge on a lot of other coaches. The bulk of hard work is the big thing about rugby, the 80 to 90 per cent of grafting, training hard, working hard and taking ownership. But we do think there are little things we have missed where we can do better and Felix is going to play a pretty vital role in that.”

Any urge for Springboks in Six Nations has curdled

As Erasmus made sure to point out during his comments, he is no longer part of the administrative side of things with SA Rugby, having relinquished his director of rugby role to focus solely on coaching the Springboks. However, his opinion on the Six Nations and any potential South Africa involvement still carries great weight. And he is also bang on the money, because the appetite for the Springboks to be involved in the Six Nations feels as though it has diminished significantly.

While there was once genuine intrigue about the concept, if anything the introduction of the South African franchises to the Champions Cup has steered people in the other direction. The Springboks would no doubt avoid the logistical travel issues faced by sides going to and from South Africa at club level but this is about the bigger picture, not flight connections. Perhaps this stems from the uncertainty around the future of the Six Nations TV rights, but the competition is already on the brink of significant change if it does decide to partially – or worst case, completely – go behind a paywall. Adding in South Africa as well at his point would just feel fractious. Right now, as an entity, there is an urge to protect it.

Erasmus’s point about moving the Rugby Championship, however, is an excellent one. It would mean shifting the start time for Super Rugby to later in the year, potentially having to split it up in the middle for the July Tests to take place. Plus it would be slightly odd for Australia and New Zealand to begin their rugby seasons by diving straight into intense Test matches. Not forgetting the contractual complications for players in Japan signed up to big-money deals with teams who would not want to see their assets disappearing midway through the Top League season to play in brutal Test matches. All that said, there would be a refreshingly clean feel to having the top competitions in the northern and southern hemisphere running concurrently, which feels worth exploring.

As for Felix Jones, listening to Erasmus speak about what the assistant coach can bring to the Springboks should fill everyone else with a sense of dread. Jones is clearly a highly intelligent, insightful coach, and the fact that it did not work out with England remains a bad look. Now he gets to take that intel back to South Africa. Plus he can pass on the information he gathered scouting against South Africa when England played them in November. The rugby rich get richer.