Today Rassie Erasmus is hailed as one of the all-time great rugby managers, while his back-to-back World Cups prove that he's more than earned such accolades.
However, before his sensational return to the Springboks, Erasmus spent plenty of time mastering his trade at Munster. Speaking ahead of South Africa's Autumn internationals, the tactical mastermind revealed that he uncovered the key to South African success in Munster.
The last decade and a half has seen a previously unprecedented influx of both South African coaches and players into Irish rugby. From Erasmus to Jacques Nienaber, or Jean Kleyn to RG Snyman or Ruan Pienar many of South Africa's most influential players have spent time on these shores.
Despite the untold contributions they've made to rugby on the island, their presence and international success has often lent itself to the narrative that Irish rugby was becoming a busy fool, allowing South Africa claim international success off the back of its hard work.
4 October 2017; Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus during Munster Rugby Squad Training at the University of Limerick in Limerick. Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile
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Rassie Erasmus confirms Munster fan's fears
While at best such a narrative is a stretch, Rassie Erasmus did reveal that he uncovered the key to South Africa's World Cup-winning success during his time at Munster.
Speaking to the BBC's Rugby Union Weekly, Erasmus revealed that he was left in awe of the developmental system in Ireland compared to the inefficiencies of its South African counterpart.
The process he called 'precision farming' left him eager to return home and apply the blueprint to South African rugby, where it's evidently been quite the success.
What I saw in Ireland (drives me). Look at Ireland, I thought we were so professional in South Africa then I went over to Ireland and I still today and I'm never going to apologise for it, cause I really didn't say it but the Irish think I once said they are soft and it was taken a little bit out of context.
But what I've learned there (in Ireland) is that's professional (Irish Rugby) they do precision farming, they take a player, they grind and mould and make him better and make him better and then decide, is he going to be professional or not.
If not they call in his folks and say 'listen he's not professional let him become a teacher or whatever'. In South Africa we didn't do that, we had 1000 professional rugby players and if you didn't make it you'd just go the next one, so we were actually creating a perfect thing for mediocrity.
So when I saw that in Ireland: 160 players and number one/two in the world, we're doing something wrong in South Africa, I just wanted to get back there and go and do it with the players. I just thought if we could cut (provincialism and politics) out and be really serious about it and also do precision farming but with more players.
While his comments will come as a welcome compliment to those involved in developing the next generation of Irish rugby, they'll do little to mask the fact that Ireland's blueprint may have been exactly what South Africa needed to rise to the top of the world.
Those systems will be put to the test once again as Ireland and South Africa tussle from a far to grab the number one spot in the Wold Rugby rankings, with one slip-up from either side enough to see their nemesis take the top spot.
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