Munster made quite a coup in hiring Rassie Erasmus. The South African comes with a huge reputation and a big CV, but there is definitely a sense that Munster and Ireland fans know almost nothing about him.
CJ Stander has given him the seal of approval, but one player with Munster connections played under Erasmus in his first coaching gig at the Free State Cheetahs.
Former Munster prop Wian du Preez was in that Cheetahs side, and told Alan Quinlan in his column today exactly what Munster can expect of Erasmus. There was a talk of how Erasmus united the squad in a similar manner to Pat Lam's work with Connacht - but one story sticks out among the rest.
The story paints Erasmus as an innovator. One of those outside of the box thinkers who comes up with crazy ideas that just work. It's also a story that doesn't bode well for Anthony Foley's involvement because Erasmus sounds like he wants to be heavily involved in all aspects of how his team plays.
Erasmus started to notice during his time with the Cheetahs that teams would figure out what pre-planned moves they would call, so he devised a plan. The South African went to the club's PA guy and organised for disco lights to be installed on the grandstand. Erasmus would control the lights, and what colour they would be:
The point was that once we saw the lights change, we knew what move to carry out. It worked a treat.
Genius.
