Angry Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has poured more fuel on the flames of an escalating feud with his All Blacks counterpart Dave Rennie in the “walking around scrum” saga.
In the latest chapter of the ongoing quarrel between the coaches, Erasmus lashed out at the New Zealander when he named his team for Saturday’s third Test at the FNB Stadium (kickoff 5.10pm).
The Bok coach says Rennie bypassed official channels by airing his views on SA’s scrumming technique in a media briefing after the Cape Town Test last week.
“My frustration wasn’t so much about his opinion, but when an opinion gets presented as fact,” Erasmus said.
“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.
“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 says he fully trusts the methods of respected Bok scrum coach Daan Human.
“We would never tell the team to walk around the opposition; that’s not our strength, that’s not how we do things.
“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,” he said, but pointed out the constraints coaches operated under.
“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.”
Erasmus says an unrelenting Springbok team will fine-tune its game plan and fix areas of concern ahead of Saturday’s encounter.
In Cape Town, the Boks were outscored by four tries to three by an All Blacks team that has made great strides under Rennie.
“They are a brilliant team, and there are definitely things we must fix,” Erasmus said.
“I don’t want to be technical about the edge defence, but they have really smart players, and they are two classes up from what they were last year.
“The one thing we immediately agreed on in the changing room is that this is a really good New Zealand team.
“This week we did a lot of things much better, and I can tell you now this is not the same New Zealand team we played last year.
“They attacked with width, they got offloads away, they’re really well coached, and they’ve got athletes who can beat you on a dime.
“A couple of more phases at the end and it could have been a draw.”
Erasmus said the win had relieved some pressure on his side after they lost the opening Test at Ellis Park.
“We 100% understand the pressure and why people are upset because no-one wants to support a losing team,” he said.
“No-one in South Africa wants to support anything that’s not working.
“A loss here and there doesn’t make you a losing team immediately, but it’s when you go on a losing run that the pressure comes on.
“But of course, I felt the pressure; the players will tell you I felt the pressure. I was nervous.
“We must make sure we’re not comfortable after this win and think we’re all good again because there were things we didn’t do well.”
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