Yesterday’s announcement of Rassie Erasmus as Bok coach was a pretty poorly kept secret, because if you’d been paying attention you would have seen it coming well in advance.

The 45-year-old will now try and pick up the pieces left behind by the reign of Allister Coetzee, including a team that has become somewhat accustomed to record defeats.

Of course he isn’t acting alone, and his three assistant coaches are Jacques Nienaber, Pieter de Villiers and Mzwandile Stick, with Aled Walters to join the management team as head of athletic performance.

Rassie’s appointment has been applauded by many in the rugby fraternity, with his successful stint at Munster proving his coaching credentials.

One chap who is keen to dig a little deeper into how Rassie landed the gig is exiled sports journalist Graeme Joffe, currently at war with SA Rugby chief Mark Alexander.

You can read about that battle here, but let’s talk about 10 questions Joffe says you wouldn’t have heard at the Rassie Erasmus / Bok press conference.

From this tweet:

Wow, that escalated quickly.

Questions five, six and seven are of the most interest to me, but I can bet that Allister Coetzee would love to hear eight and nine ticked off the list.

Allister has already said that he believes his departure from the Boks was pre-planned, and that he was set up to fail, but I reckon he will find sympathy hard to come by.

I think, given just how horrid Bok results have been these past two years, that Rassie winning matches is all the public really cares about. I’m on board with that, but we should also hold SA Rugby accountable.

You can’t shout at our country’s governance for back-scratching and collusion, and then wave away similar practices at sports unions because we’re performing on the field.

Sadly we have almost zero chance of hearing these questions answered, whether they hold substance or not, and the top dogs at SA Rugby will continue to govern in a way that has driven every former coach to bemoan the set-up.

We want wins, Rassie, and we’ll take them with open hands. It’s just a pity that we can’t expect more transparency from our biggest sporting unions along the way.

[source:twitter]