{"id":567897,"date":"2026-08-13T15:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/567897\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:10:09","slug":"springboks-coach-headhunted-by-rassie-erasmus-could-hold-the-key-to-greatest-rivalry-victory-over-all-blacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/567897\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks coach ‘headhunted’ by Rassie Erasmus could hold the key to Greatest Rivalry victory over All Blacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Arsenal coach who once persuaded Lukas Podolski, Mesut O\u017eul and Santi Cazorla to dress in full Munster<\/a> rugby kit could hold the key to the outcome of the Greatest Rivalry series.<\/p>\n

Jerry Flannery is the Springboks defence coach Rassie Erasmus credited with last week\u2019s narrow win over Argentina; the ex-Ireland hooker is so dedicated to his craft he wrote the thesis for his Master\u2019s degree on the science of lineout throwing.<\/p>\n

On Saturday week the 47-year-old faces his toughest test to date when South Africa<\/a> and New Zealand<\/a> lock horns at Ellis Park. Flannery is tasked with neutralising the attacking threat posed by the tourists.<\/p>\n

Early life<\/p>\n

We know Flannery<\/a> was born in Galway, started rugby life at Connacht before moving to his beloved Munster, where he made his name, winning two European Cups and 41 Ireland caps. Wikipedia tells us all that.<\/p>\n

But what of the man behind the public figure? What drives Flannery and what is it about him that convinces Erasmus he has the wherewithal to shut down a Kiwi team fresh from putting 74 points on Ireland and France in the Nations Championship?<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me tell you a little about Fla,\u201d says Adam \u2018Bomb\u2019 Jones, the Wales and Lions prop who coached alongside Flannery at Harlequins, steering the Londoners to Gallagher Premiership glory in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing he ever said to me was in a weights session. Literally, his opening gambit was that he always thought the Welsh boys were really strong in the gym, but we weren\u2019t actually as strong as Gats [Warren Gatland] made out.<\/p>\n

\u201cNice to meet you, too,\u201d I thought.<\/p>\n

Top 10 props in rugby: Springboks sensation tops chart from team-mate while England stalwart leads the chasing pack<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSome time later he and his partner (now wife), Katy, invited us round to his for an Indian takeaway. We had been there a while and were waiting to eat and he was still on his laptop, looking through lineouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Fla. Once he has an idea he is like a dog with a bone. His work ethic is unreal. He\u2019ll leave no stone unturned, complete attention to detail around the smallest bits and bobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d spend crazy hours working. We ended up coming up with a codeword whenever it was becoming too much. It was his idea \u2013 \u2018whenever I start to talk s**t\u2019 \u2013 just a heads-up that he was carrying on too much. I\u2019d say this word and he\u2019d look at me and stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flannery retired from playing in March 2012 having been injured playing for Ireland at the World Cup in New Zealand the previous autumn.<\/p>\n

He started a Master\u2019s degree in sports performance at the University of Limerick and in July 2013 joined Arsenal on a work placement as an academy strength and conditioning coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby and football are very different sports,\u201d he told arsenal.com at the time. \u201cThe skill element is so much harder in football that the physical development probably hasn\u2019t been as strong in the past, whereas in rugby it\u2019s much stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t take what fits in rugby and take it to football. You can apply certain aspects of that. Some of the structures that have been put together in rugby work well and it\u2019s about trying to get those and taking the players at a young age, making sure they are functionally confident and developing all the way through to ensure they are the best athletes they can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny player that comes in here is of a certain skill level already if he\u2019s good enough to be at Arsenal Football Club. We just want to make them robust and keep them on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forgotten Springboks playmaker opens up on All Blacks challenge with the Bulls and his Test ambitions<\/a><\/p>\n

It was around this time that Flannery, comparing his own footballing ability to \u201ckind of like a (fellow Munsterman) Roy Keane\u201d, persuaded three of Arsenal\u2019s biggest stars to dress in the colours of his beloved province and pose with the good luck message \u2018G\u2019wan Munster\u2019.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Flannery\u2019s next stop was Thomond Park, where he spent six years first as scrum, then forwards coach. It was there he came across Erasmus<\/a> and Jacques Nienaber, who joined in 2016 as director of rugby and defence coach respectively.<\/p>\n

When Erasmus returned home a year later to become South Africa\u2019s director of rugby he had seen enough of Flannery to know that one day he wanted their paths to cross again.<\/p>\n

He kept close tabs on him as he moved to England in 2020 and joined Harlequins during lockdown; admiring the way Flannery took hold of a struggling team and within half a season helped transform it into Premiership champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, he came across as I would expect, given the way Paul O\u2019Connell and Ronan O\u2019Gara did it,\u201d says Jones, who is still at the club. \u201cIn all three of them you can still clearly see that Munster DNA: the hard work, attention to detail, technical excellence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFla was doing the lineouts and when Gussie left in January of that season he took over the defence system, doubling his workload. He\u2019d be there every night, until eight or nine o\u2019clock.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow driven was he? Well, I remember we were drawn to play Munster in the Champions Cup in Fla\u2019s first season. It was obviously a big game for him, going back to Thomond.<\/p>\n

Marchant view<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Marchant had been given the weekend off to go to a wedding. Fla couldn\u2019t get his head around this. It was completely alien to him, because Munster is all about the European Cup and we were giving March a weekend off.<\/p>\n

\u201cComfortably three weeks before, he was constantly saying, \u2018we need to pick Marchant\u2019. In the end Gussie had enough, told him he was doing his head in and would he please just stop talking!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones smiles as he remembers some of Flannery\u2019s team talks and team meetings which, he says, have gone down in Quins history.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won\u2019t mind me saying that he\u2019s got these little beady eyes which sink into his head a bit when he gets emotional!\u201d the Welshman laughs. \u201cThat, and his strong Limerick accent, adds to the impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery now and again, there\u2019d be a few grumblings from the senior players, because Fla was very headstrong with his opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the fact the guy was headhunted by Rassie, one of the greatest rugby coaches ever, says it all. He knows his stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bulls team: Four Springboks and new signings start as Johan Ackermann names powerful side for All Blacks showdown<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Arsenal coach who once persuaded Lukas Podolski, Mesut O\u017eul and Santi Cazorla to dress in full…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[110631,1463,1464,49970,111,43,139,69,6327,213],"class_list":["post-567897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-harlequins","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-munster","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}