Rassie Erasmus Recalls Disastrous Family Trip To See Fungie When He Arrived In Ireland

Today Rassie Erasmus is the embodiment of cool, calm and collected. The South African head coach is known for being one of world rugby's most innovative and provocative characters, and since returning to his native country has won back-to-back Rugby World Cups and a famous British and Irish Lions test tour.

While Erasmus was ferocious as both a player and coach, a failed bid to meet Dingle hero Fungie left the South African in a tizzy when he first arrived in Ireland.

Erasmus had first arrived on these shores in 2016 to take charge of Munster Rugby, rejecting clubs in the English Premiership for a chance to join one of world rugby's most revered clubs.

Despite only spending a year in Limerick, Erasmus's time in Ireland would have a profound impact on him. Not only did he take inspiration from much of Ireland and Munster's development structures and implement them in his home country, but Erasmus was also in charge during the tragic passing of Anthony Foley - which he has spoken quite openly about.

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13 July 2024; South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus, right, and Ireland head coach Andy Farrell before the second test between South Africa and Ireland at Kings Park in Durban, South Africa. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Rassie Erasmus reveals disastrous tale of first holiday in Ireland

Far from the rugby field, however, it was an 'embarrassing' attempt to see Fungie the dolphin when he first arrived in Munster that has stuck with the South African.

Appearing alongside Felix Jones on his own new podcast Rassie +, the South African head-coach recalled the tale of his first holiday in Ireland where he, like so many before him, travelled to Dingle in search of Fungie.

I wanted to go and see this Dolphin. There's this big tourism boat, but there was a guy who said 'no, no'. He said he's got a boat, he's gonna take us out.

We get into this boat, go into the ocean and you throw over the line and children pull out fish.

My small one Jani said, she's standing in the water at the back of this boat. It was our second, third week in Munster, but we were deep into the ocean and the guy who was driving the boat, I said to him 'is this normal?'

Unfortunately for Erasmus, his concerns were well-founded, and as he explains the situation became quite scary and the boat would sink before he ever got a glimpse of the dolphin.

He said, that's not 100% normal and then eventually he said I must take the steering wheel of this boat, so I went to the front of this boat and it was lifting, it was gathering water at the back and I was hanging onto the steering wheel and my children were starting to cry.

Long story short, that was our first weekend in (Munster), this big boat which you actually go on to look at Fungie came and rescued us and they pulled off this boat onto a bigger boat and it was the most embarrassing thing ever because we panicked so much.

Then we got onto this boat, and that boat just sunk. I maybe swam with him, but I never actually saw him.

@smashsportsinc Rassie’s first weekend in Munster didn’t go quite as planned… 🛶🐬😂 Catch the full story on Youtube 🇿🇦☘️ #Rassie #Fungie #Munster ♬ original sound - Smash Sports

While Rassie Erasmus escaped the scene with nothing but a good story to tell, the South African was undoubtedly lucky that there was help on hand for he and his family who were in quite the situation.

So drastic was the failure of Erasmus' search that the South African head-coach was asking Jones whether the dolphin even existed.

Fortunately, Jones was there to verify that Fungie had in fact existed and that he'd seen him as a child.