Rennie would probably see the funny side too given Erasmus changed his entire front row only minutes before kick-off (after naming his side on the Monday local time), and that during the week of the first Test at Ellis Park, won 33-16 by the All Blacks<\/a>, the Boks coach wheeled out his referees\u2019 advisor Jaco Peyper<\/a> to \u201cprove\u201d South Africa do not attempt to slow the game down.<\/p>\n Referee Angus Gardner sets another scrum in the Boks v All Blacks Test in Cape Town. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n So, it is difficult to take the man known as rugby\u2019s master manipulator seriously at times. There is little doubt that the game would be less colourful for his absence but one wonders how Erasmus would have reacted had South Africa, who re-took the world\u2019s No.1 ranking, lost this morning.<\/p>\n Rennie, asked about the scrums \u2013 an area in which the All Blacks were better than they were last weekend – calmly replied: \u201cWe\u2019ll give a bit of feedback around that. It\u2019s still a bit of an issue for us because they\u2019re able to walk around and go straight through our tighthead.\u201d<\/p>\n Erasmus, notified of Rennie\u2019s comments, said: \u201cIt\u2019s the first time ever in history that people are talking about us walking around so why would we all of a sudden walk around? The first six scrums New Zealand had, every single one collapsed\u2026 why is it only on their ball that the scrum collapses every single time?<\/p>\n \u201cSo don\u2019t come with that nonsense and say we\u2019re walking around and put that out in the media.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last lineout [on All Blacks\u2019 throw] was skewed and it was contested. I\u2019m not going to moan my ass off about that. <\/p>\n \u201cIf he\u2019s going to start moaning about stuff like that then play under pressure because last week we didn\u2019t moan after there was clear head contacts a lot of the time and today in the first 40 there were four head contacts and nothing was done about it and then Lood [de Jager] gets a yellow.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t try to convince people through the media because that was what happened in the first week \u2026 that we were slowing the game down and we\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n All Blacks skipper Ardie Savea is high tackled by Boks midfielder Damian de Allende. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n Erasmus, his stream of consciousness complete, asked that his reply not be taken out of context but the message was clear – only he is permitted to publicly draw the attention of the match officials to concerns about the applications of the game’s laws.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the scrums weren\u2019t the issue for the All Blacks this morning, but their lineout was. They won 15 of 18 lineouts but lost two inside the Boks 22 (one in each half) when an accurate set piece would have put enormous pressure on the home team.<\/p>\n The Boks challenged well in this area and that, along with their physicality at the breakdown and front-on defence, allowed them to hold off the visitors and put them in constant catch-up mode.<\/p>\n There is little doubt, either, that they did well to slow the All Blacks\u2019 ball by lying on the wrong side of the breakdown \u2013 flanker Pieter Steph du Toit, celebrating his 100th cap, was excellent at this early on \u2013 and the visitors\u2019 lack of continuity and tempo hurt them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe boys hung in there and almost stole the game away,\u201d skipper Ardie Savea said. \u201cI guess we\u2019ve got to fix up little areas in our game and not let the Springboks get into our 22 or rack points up in threes to put pressure on us.\u201d<\/p>\n As Rennie said, it was a game of small margins but while halfback Cam Roigard, one of his team\u2019s four try-scorers, was excellent throughout, Ruben Love did not provide the direction on attack his team needed and even the ultra-consistent and hard-hitting Jordie Barrett looked a little lost at times.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really small margins,\u201d Rennie said. \u201cFor all the pressure we were under tonight we lost by seven. What we know is we can create opportunities and we can score. We just need to be really clinical and deny them opportunities down our end of the field and deal with that ball in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n Erasmus, meanwhile, admitted he felt the pressure of the Ellis Park defeat during the week.<\/p>\n Now that the series is locked up at 1-1 the pressure will go back on the All Blacks and Rennie to find the solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s an experienced coach and he\u2019ll feel what we felt last week,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has fired back at claims by his All Blacks rival Dave Rennie that South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-584612","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\/584612","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=584612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Referee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/referee-angus-gardner-sets-another-scrum-in-the-boks-v-all-b-S22ZF7TX2NG2TNPLSKT5UL34CY.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"All](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/all-blacks-skipper-ardie-savea-is-high-tackled-by-boks-midfi-B4WUIT6JTNCSLKSK7WKT4C6ZAE.jpg\")
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