World Rugby reportedly agrees with Rassie

NEWS: World Rugby has reportedly agreed with most of the points made in Rassie Erasmus’ controversial 62-minute video.

Erasmus and SA Rugby were charged by the world governing body after Erasmus criticised Australian referee Nic Berry and his officiating team in the video for their performance in the Springboks’ 17-22 defeat in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in July.

However, according to Rapport, World Rugby admitted that Erasmus was correct with 23-of the 26 points he made in the video.

Despite this, Erasmus, the Director of Rugby, and SA Rugby will front up to a World Rugby hearing on October 30 and 31.

It is believed the content of the video was not the major problem. It’s the fact that it was leaked into the public domain.

It is expected that Erasmus’ defence will argue that he did not release the video into the public sphere.

According to the Rapport, one theory is that the video may have been uploaded on social media in Australia after it was sent to Berry. However, there is currently no evidence to support this.

After the video went viral, Rugby Australia issued a statement lashing out at Erasmus’comments and CEO Andy Marinos revealed they took the issue up with World Rugby to show support for Berry.

Erasmus said that he has only sent the video to Berry, SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux, Bok coach Jacques Nienaber and the rest of the coaching team and World Rugby referee bosses Joel Jutge and Joe Schmidt.

When Erasmus and SA Rugby were notified of their misconduct hearing, World Rugby issued a statement saying: “World Rugby condemns any public criticism of their selection, performance or integrity which undermines their role, the well-established and trust-based coach-officials feedback process, and more importantly, the values that are at the heart of the sport.”

Source: Rapport