The former Cheetahs and Munster mentor is back in South Africa following his stint at the Irish team.

OFM Sport has it on good authority that the franchise want to invite Erasmus to work with the team for a week or two as they pursue a play-off spot in the Guinness Pro14.

The former Springbok captain is widely tipped to take over as the coach of the national team, should Allister Coetzee receive the axe by the South African Rugby Union. It is even believed that should Coetzee retain his job, Erasmus will be calling the shots.

The defence guru, Jacques Nienaber, also returned back to South Africa from Munster with Erasmus. The Cheetahs defence has been a topic of debate not just this season, but probably for the past two or three seasons.

While Charl Strydom is doing a fairly admirable job in the role, it will not hurt the team in the least if Nienaber joins Erasmus on a visit to the Cheetahs.

It has to be stressed that an Erasmus visit has not been confirmed yet.

The Cheetahs coach, Rory Duncan, confirmed that the goal is the play-offs, but it’s all about taking one step at a time.

“Obviously it would be nice, I’m not going to say that we don’t want to make the play-offs.

“We 100% want the play-offs, we want to play in the play-offs, and we want home play-offs.

“Having said that, our approach is to focus on one step at a time.

“Especially playing in the competition for the first time, I think it is the right way to approach it.”

The Cheetahs are on a break until 27 December, from where their preparation starts to face Benetton Rugby and the Southern Kings twice in January.

Morgan Piek  OFM Sport