{"id":581643,"date":"2026-08-27T05:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T05:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/581643\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T05:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T05:46:11","slug":"boks-coach-erasmus-plans-pre-test-beer-with-all-blacks-rival-rennie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/581643\/","title":{"rendered":"Boks coach Erasmus plans pre-Test beer with All Blacks rival Rennie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus says he plans to meet rival Dave Rennie before the second Test in Cape Town, but referee Nika Amashukeli will not be invited.<\/p>\n

Instead, it will be a social call rather than a three-way discussion with the match official – Erasmus, in a bright mood days after his side\u2019s 33-16 defeat to the All Blacks<\/a> in the first Test in Johannesburg, saying only that beer will be on the agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cDave and I had a beer [after the Ellis Park Test], and we\u2019re going to try to catch up on Friday for a beer in Cape Town,\u201d Erasmus added. \u201cBut without the referee.\u201d<\/p>\n

World Rugby has forbidden coaches speaking to referees pre-match about potential law interpretations and concerns without both camps being present. Instead, as we saw last week, coaches have begun airing those thoughts before the media. <\/p>\n

Speaking before the All Blacks\u2019 come-from-behind victory <\/a>over the Lions at Ellis Park yesterday, Erasmus said there was \u201cno logic\u201d in speaking to match officials now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, there\u2019s no logic behind two coaches meeting together and discussing the laws with the referee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to discuss something with the referee with the other coach present,\u201d Erasmus added. \u201cI\u2019m going to say, \u2018Listen, we are concerned about this in the scrums\u2019, and he\u2019s going to say, \u2018But we do this in the scrums\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Referee<\/p>\n

Referee Nika Amashukeli speaks to Boks captain Siya Kolisi during the Test in Wellington last year.. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might say, \u2018These guys really clean out well at the breakdown \u2026 will you be looking at that?\u2019 But you can\u2019t have that discussion in front of the referee, because then the opposition coach knows that\u2019s what you\u2019re looking at.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what do you discuss with the referee? Boys, are you going to play within the laws? The laws of the game are the laws, so it\u2019s almost impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The All Blacks have been open about wanting to play a fast game without breaks<\/a> caused by suspicious injuries to the opposition, or long meetings before lineouts, with Erasmus firing back last week by presenting former Test referee Jaco Peyper<\/a>, now a team advisor, to the media.<\/p>\n

A day later assistant coach Felix Jones inferred that Rennie coached his teams in illegal and potentially unsafe tactics <\/a>at the breakdown.<\/p>\n

It was interesting that Erasmus brought up scrum issues because the All Blacks will want Georgian official Amashukeli to take a close look at the Boks\u2019 front row tactics at the set piece on Sunday morning NZT.<\/p>\n

The Boks won half a dozen scrum penalties at Ellis Park at the weekend but, while their scrum was dominant, it was helped by the front row wheeling the All Blacks in a clockwise action, itself an illegal movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll always debate scrums and when you\u2019re penalised you question whether they\u2019re walking around,\u201d Rennie said afterwards. \u201cThey got penalised for walking around eventually and that was probably a key moment of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erasmus, who has been boosted by the fitness of inspirational skipper Siya Kolisi, said he was \u201cmaybe too clever\u201d last week by not covering for a potential early injury to an outside back.<\/p>\n

Kurt-Lee Arendse\u2019s departure after failing a head injury assessment after nine minutes meant the Boks were caught short by the All Blacks\u2019 strategy of targeting the wide channels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose long loop passes work because guys are out of position,\u201d Erasmus said. \u201cIt was very clever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erasmus added the Boks were \u201cvery desperate to win this game \u2013 you see that in the training sessions and the coaches\u2019 sessions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another All Blacks\u2019 win would give them an unbeatable lead in the four-Test series.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks will announce their team at 10pm (NZT) today.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including hundreds missing after a landslide in Nepal, and Meta settles a massive lawsuit over alleged harm to children. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus says he plans to meet rival Dave Rennie before the second Test in Cape…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-581643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}