'I’ve been burned for that before': Rassie's message to Rennie
VIDEO: Rassie Erasmus has hit back at All Blacks coach Dave Rennie over his claims that the Springboks were deliberately moving around at scrum time to win penalties, insisting his frustration was not with Rennie’s opinion but with the way it was presented.
Rennie made the accusation after Saturday’s second Test in Cape Town, prompting a strong reaction from Springbok loosehead Ox Nché and now Erasmus, who believes the All Blacks coach should have used the official channels available to raise his concerns.
“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 (AMS), 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.”
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Erasmus said he had plenty he could criticise about the All Blacks but was restricted to five clips that could be submitted through the official system.
“I’m not frustrated with the fact that Dave wants to get it out, there’s a lot of things I want to get out about New Zealand, but I only have five clips I can send him post a match,” he said.
“If I name another four here, it’s against the protocol, because the protocol is sent through the AMS system.
“So, I can guarantee you, we don’t want to put more pressure on the referees through the media.”
The Springbok coach believes comments made publicly can quickly become a narrative that places 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.”
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Erasmus also drew a comparison with Rennie’s criticism of the Springboks’ tactical changes, saying there were different ways of attempting to influence the conversation around a Test match.
“If you talk about changing three players before a match, which was tactical, and people say that’s against the laws and against the spirit of the game, surely coming to a press conference and naming things that’s out there now, it’s other tactics to do it that way,” he said.
“And that’s more the frustrating part.”
Despite his criticism, Erasmus stressed that there was no personal animosity towards Rennie.
“I’m friends with him, but I understand what he’s trying to do, and as long as that doesn’t succeed.”
He also backed referee Nika Amashukeli to handle the scrum battle in the third Test.
“Nika Amashukeli is a sharp referee. He comes from Georgia, he knows scrums, he’s coached Georgia, he’s played rugby himself, he knows how scrums get handled.”
“That was the only frustration.”
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