Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus backs global rugby calendar

Rassie Erasmus has added his influential voice to the growing chorus calling for a unified global rugby calendar, suggesting that a total realignment of the international season could solve the sport’s most persistent headaches.

According to a report in France, a World Rugby meeting is set to take place in London next month to discuss the matter.

Speaking this week, Erasmus revealed his excitement regarding a "synced" schedule, with discussions moving from boardroom theory into serious practical consideration.

"There’s real talk about it," Erasmus told reporters on Monday. "When you’re in meetings and you start looking at calendars and you think what can work and what can’t work — some people voiced it out publicly, then some people took the route to get it done. It looks like everybody’s taking it seriously now."

For Erasmus, the primary beneficiary of such a seismic shift would be the players. Under the current system, the Springboks often navigate overlapping club and international commitments across different hemispheres. Players are basically playing all year round, and need to be managed to try to avoid burnout.

"I think it will sort out a lot of problems for us," Erasmus explained. "Player welfare, managing the number of games a player can play, rules of competitions — all those kinds of things are easier to implement and to adapt to."

A major point of frustration for the double World Cup-winning coach has been the staggered implementation of law changes. He cited the 20-minute red card — a Rugby Championship staple that was initially rejected in the north — as a prime example of the confusion caused by misaligned seasons.

"It syncs everything," he noted. "Now our players go into a series and some players might get banned in November; it influences banning, and it influences a pre-season that we have sometimes. Some players play in the Six Nations, then a new law comes in and you’re only playing in June. The global calendar will help that."

While Erasmus was careful to state that he was offering a personal opinion rather than an official SA Rugby mandate, he proposed a radical solution to the "flat" periods teams face when their domestic seasons don't match their opponents' peak fitness.

“I think it would be fantastic if we could play the Rugby Championship in February, when the Six Nations is on," Erasmus suggested.

"It would be much easier to know all the teams and be aligned, rather than having some countries flat in June and others peak in November, and then we are flat at that time. To implement law variations right across the board would be so much easier because all competitions would start at the same time.”