Rassie Erasmus to honour 2019 Anthony Foley promise: 'We ended as close friends'

Springbok Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus says he will visit the family of former Munster head coach Anthony Foley, who died suddenly in a Paris hotel room in 2016 ahead of a Champions Cup fixture, on his side's European tour next month.

Erasmus, who was Director of Rugby at the union at the time, replaced Foley as head coach for the remainder of that season before joining the Springboks in 2017.

After winning the Rugby World Cup final on 2 November 2019, Erasmus promised an Irish journalist at the post-match press conference that he would visit Foley's grave with his winners' medal at some point in the future.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying travel restrictions, however, put a stop to any such plans.

Next month, though, Erasmus will return to Ireland, where the Boks are in action on 5 November before South Africa A play a midweek game against Munster on 10 November.

In a media briefing on Tuesday, Erasmus was quizzed by an Irish reporter on the promise he made three years ago and whether or not he would follow through with it.

"What Munster did for me on a coaching level - not just the people, but the players and assistant coaches and when Axel (Foley) passed away, I hopefully grew as a person and understood things and people better because I maybe wasn't great at that," Erasmus said.

"I will certainly make a plan. I will definitely meet up with his sister, and hopefully, Jerry (Flannery, former Munster forwards coach) is around too, if he is not at Harlequins.

"I will definitely keep my promise because Axel played a big part in those short few months for me. It was tough times for us when we started out, but we ended as two close friends, and I love the Munster and Irish people."

Erasmus added that the