Rassie Erasmus has declined an invitation to publicly criticise referee Karl Dickson for his officiating in last Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash in Auckland.
The back-to-back world champion Springboks spent the final part of the match heaping pressure on the All Blacks in the hope of securing the converted try that would have drawn the match 24-all.
Instead, their momentum was pierced by a penalty-winning Ardie Savea intervention near his own line and it left South Africa beaten 17-24, an outcome that extended the All Blacks’ unbeaten run at Eden Park to 51 matches.
The Springboks are now in Wellington preparing for their Round Four rematch with the All Blacks. While Erasmus’ early naming of his team for that game was the reason for his latest media briefing on Monday, there were still questions about the Round Three game in Auckland.
“Not saying that was the case on Saturday…”
Among them was the allegation that English referee Dickson “withdrew a little bit” from the game near the finish due to the pressure surrounding the result and whether, as a consequence, Erasmus had sent a video compilation to World Rugby referees boss Joel Jutge.
During the virtual part of his media briefing, a South African reporter asked Erasmus: “I hope I don’t get you in trouble with this question… it just seemed in the last five minutes that the referee was almost afraid to punish New Zealand a little bit; like he didn’t want to be responsible for ending this magical win streak.
“It was almost like he withdrew from the game a little bit. My question is, did you make a nice video to send back to Joel Jutge, a little review video, and is it a bit concerning that the pressure just gets to the guys a little bit?”
Erasmus, who was twice banned by World Rugby for comments about referees, refused to take the bait and instead replied with a “politically correct answer” about a match where the penalty count was 10 infringements each, but South Africa had one yellow card.
“Since there have been protocols in place since 2022, we are really comfortable with how we can send stuff in, how it’s been handled,” began the Springboks head coach. “Since there are protocols, you know we can accept that referees are human and pressure might sometimes get to them.
“With Jaco Peyper here and Felix Jones, you know, we follow the protocols now since there are protocols or put the protocols in place, which weren’t in place in 2021 (when the infamous video was compiled about British and Irish Lions first Test referee Nic Berry).
“So you know, I’m sure New Zealand will have some questions, and we’ll have some questions and we send that in, and we’re really satisfied with the answers we get back and then we either adapt what we can do with the answers we get from World Rugby, from Joel and his team, Phil Davies and so on.
“We adapt and we even change team selection sometimes because there’s a protocol in place and again, we just followed that protocol after this game. Of course there’s pressure on referees, you know.
“Non-biased, (but) just sometimes the occasion gets to them, but I’m not saying that was the case on Saturday. There were mistakes (on) both sides. I hope that’s a politically correct answer.”
Rassie Erasmus posts 17-word ‘does not lie’ message after Springboks’ loss to All Blacks
For the Round Four game in Wellington, which will be refereed by Nika Amashukeli, Erasmus has changed seven of the Springboks XV. Five alterations are in the backline, with Cheslin Kolbe and Canan Moodie the only starters from Auckland retained. There is a positional switch, though, for Moodie as he switches from left wing to outside centre.
In the pack, Jasper Wiese is back following his suspension and his return has facilitated the move of Siya Kolisi from No.8 to blindside with Marco van Staden dropping out. The captaincy has also been restored to Kolisi, as midfielder Jesse Kriel, who was given the responsibility last Saturday, isn’t in the matchday 23.
Lock Lood de Jager, a replacement in Auckland, will also start for the omitted Eben Etzebeth.