‘You can’t hear anything’ – South Africa combat noise with LED traffic signals

South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber has revealed how his coaching team used traffic light signals to communicate with each other in their 2023 Rugby World Cup opener against Scotland.

During the match, assistant coach Felix Jones and director of rugby Rassie Erasmus could be seen holding up different coloured LED lights to convey messages from their box to support staff.

The use of this system is nothing new for Erasmus, who previously used this system in domestic rugby during his tenure as Cheetahs coach.

Nienaber said the noise inside the Stade Velodrome prompted a decision to use the unorthodox communication method.

“I don’t know if you’ve been pitch-side but in this dome, the sound is phenomenal. You can’t hear anything.

“It’s for us, because there are a lot of [radio] channels we are working in and talking in, it’s sometimes tough for us to talk to our support staff.

“I think a lot of teams will have systems – is it red, is it green – for the extent of the injury or the knock and how serious it is. It’s just for us to communicate with support staff.”

The trio of Nienaber, Erasmus and Jones also revealed how they used a similar sort of system during their time together at Irish side Munster.

With that in mind, Nienaber believes the use of this system does not require prior approval from World Rugby.

“I think you can do hand signals if you want. I don’t think you need permission from World Rugby. It’s a method. When I was at Munster, the call was red if it was a serious thing and we must consider a substitution.

“Amber is ‘listen, let’s give this guy five minutes to see if he’s OK’ and green is ‘it’s OK, he can go on’. It was something we used Munster in 2016 or 2017 and something we continue with.

“If we talk on a radio, we talk tactics. If we [also] talk to medical people about injuries, it just consumes the channels.”

Jones will leave the Springboks support staff once the World Cups end to join Steve Borthwick’s England set-up.

South Africa play Romania in their next game on Sunday, September 17.

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