Johan “Rassie” Erasmus has been a rugby fan, player, coach and director over his sports career, culminating in winning the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
Divided into chapters, covering his various roles in a chronological order, touching on each affiliation and partnership with an overview of achievements and learnings,is a compelling and comprehensive sports biopic. Gathering an array of footage and photos from each chapter,maintains good pacing, not getting bogged down and constantly shaping its textured character portrait.
A maverick, whose unorthodox approach has been hugely influential from player selection to tactics, Erasmus has been known to be a stirrer with his outspoken attitude landing himself in trouble with world sports bodies and naysayers. Sidestepping the plucky character’s social media gaffes and rule-bending, this documentary is more concerned with garnering due respect, presenting the coach’s overarching influence and positive effect.
A work in progress as SARU Director, Erasmus summoned all of his experiential knowledge to help address issues relating to self-belief, patriotism, transformation and meritocracy to deliver a more representative Springbok team. Whileretraces some familiar terrain with a typical documentary format, it’s ultimately a compelling, comprehensive, honest and rousing documentary chronicle of an unconventional and fiercely independent sports icon.