Erasmus rejects Rennie’s scrum claims as fact ahead of decisive Test

Rassie Erasmus says his frustration with All Blacks coach Dave Rennie is not that he criticised the Springboks’ scrum, but that New Zealand’s view was presented publicly as fact rather than opinion.

The dispute has intensified during the Greatest Rivalry series, which is level at 1-1 before the third Test in Soweto on Saturday.

Before the opening match, the All Blacks’ main criticism was that South Africa slowed the game down. New Zealand said it wanted to play at a faster tempo, while claiming the Springboks were deliberately reducing the pace of play.

That argument changed before the second Test, when the All Blacks began alleging that South Africa’s scrum methods were illegal.

The claims followed a dominant Springboks performance at Ellis Park, where South Africa repeatedly drove New Zealand backwards at scrum time. Ox Nche, who is well known for his “salads don’t wins scrums” quote, was prominent as the home side gained the upper hand.

In the build-up to the second Test in Cape Town, Rennie told reporters he had raised concerns with World Rugby about the Springboks appearing to move sideways during the scrum, a tactic he described as “walking around”.

The scrums were more evenly matched on Saturday, although referee Angus Gardner’s approach led to a number of resets. Erasmus also felt the All Blacks did not produce enough forward pressure to convince the referee to award a penalty.

After naming his team for the third Test on Monday, Erasmus was asked again about the debate and made clear that he did not object to Rennie expressing his view.

“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,” Erasmus said.

The Springboks coach explained that teams have an established process for reporting concerns about officiating and scrum technique. He said each side could submit five video clips to World Rugby after a match, and that public criticism could place additional pressure on referees.

“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 said the key distinction was between submitting a concern through the official process and using a news conference to establish a particular narrative.

“My frustration wasn’t so much about his opinion, but when an opinion gets presented as fact,” said Erasmus.

“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.”

With the series tied, the scrum is expected to remain a major focus in the build-up to the decisive Test and during the match itself.

Kick-off in Soweto is at 17:10 on Saturday.