Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has kicked back to All Blakcs countrepart Dave Rennie comments accusing the South Afrcans of walking around during scrums.
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The mud-slinging between Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus and his All Blacks counterpart Dave Rennie escalated on Monday after Erasmus continued his claims that South Africa’s forwards do not “walk around” in the scrum.
Rennie made the accusation after Saturday’s second Test in Cape Town, saying the Springboks were deliberately moving around in the scrum to win penalties.
His comments drew the ire of Springbok loosehead prop Ox Nche and, now, Erasmus once more, who accused Rennie of presenting an opinion as fact rather than using the official channels available to coaches.
“My frustration wasn’t so much about his opinion, but when an opinion gets presented as fact,” Erasmus said after naming his team for the third Test.
“There are now clear protocols for this. You get five clips to send to World Rugby’s officiating system, and that’s where you raise your concerns.
“If I sat here and said New Zealand are cleaning out illegally at the breakdown and the referees must look into it, that’s not the protocol. That’s talking to referees through the media, and I’ve been burned for that before.”
Erasmus has previously found himself in hot water with World Rugby over public criticism of refereeing, and he was clearly wary of going down the same road again.
He believes Rennie’s comments risk creating a narrative that could influence public opinion and put additional pressure on match officials.
“Once you put a narrative like that out there, everybody starts focusing on it – all the media, all the podcasts, everyone starts analysing it – and a lot of people doing that analysis have no real knowledge of scrums,” Erasmus said.
“What you have is people interpreting Dave’s comments as fact.”
Erasmus had already launched an extraordinary defence of his pack shortly after the Springboks’ 33-26 victory over the All Blacks on Saturday night.
“It’s the first time in history that these people are talking about us walking around. So why would we want to start walking around now?” he asked.
“The first six scrums in New Zealand’s half, they had every single one collapsed. And it was reset, reset, reset, reset.
“So why is it only on their ball that the scrums collapse every single time?
“So don’t come with that nonsense and say we’re walking around, and try and put things out in the media.
“We’re not f**king walking around. We scrum through. We’ve never, ever, ever been accused of walking around, so I don’t understand.”
Erasmus maintained that position on Monday as the Springboks prepare for the decisive third Test in Johannesburg.
“We would never tell the team to walk around the opposition, that’s not our strength, that’s not how we do things,” he said.
The Bok coach stressed that he had no objection to Rennie raising concerns about the scrum, but insisted there was a proper process for doing so.
“I’m not frustrated that Dave wants to get his point across. There are plenty of things I’d like to say about New Zealand too, but there is a system we have to follow,” Erasmus said.
“I only have five clips I can send in after a match, so naming other incidents publicly would go against the protocol, because that’s meant to go through the system.
“We don’t want to put more pressure on referees through the media.”
Despite the increasingly heated rhetoric, Erasmus insisted there was no personal animosity between the two coaches.
“I’m friends with Dave, and I understand what he’s trying to do,” he said.
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