Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has hit back at All Blacks boss Dave Rennie after he complained about the legality of the hosts’ scrum.
Ahead of the second Greatest Rivalry Test, the New Zealand head coach revealed that they had discussed their grievances with World Rugby after being dominated in the set-piece last weekend.
Rennie then followed that up in his post-match conference on Saturday by claiming the hosts are ‘walking around’ in the scrum.
It left Erasmus fuming, with the Boks boss vehemently defending how they scrum and criticising the visitors for going public.
Rassie Erasmus irritated
“It’s the first time in history that people have been talking about us walking around, so why would we all of a sudden start walking around?” he said.
“In the first six scrums on the New Zealand ball, every single one collapsed and it was reset, reset, reset, so why is it only on their ball that the scrum collapses every single time?”
The All Blacks were slightly more competitive in the scrum in Cape Town but they found themselves under duress when Wilco Louw came on at tighthead.
Erasmus opted to alter his front-row just before the clash with Gerhard Steenekamp, Deon Fourie and Thomas du Toit starting, while Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Louw dropped to the bench.
Nche and Marx came on just shy of the interval to bolster their set-piece before Louw arrived in the second half as they started to get the ascendency.
Ultimately, it was not a huge factor in the contest, however, as the hosts managed to seal a 33-26 triumph despite failing to dominate the scrum.
That did not stop Erasmus from slamming Rennie and the All Blacks, though, claiming that they are “under pressure” if they need to resort to such tactics.
‘Last week we didn’t moan’
“Don’t come with that nonsense saying we’re walking around and trying to put things out in the media,” he said.
“The last lineout was skew and we contest. I’m not going to moan my arse off about that, so if he’s going to start moaning about that stuff like that then they’re under pressure.
“Last week we didn’t moan after there was clear head contacts a lot of times. Today in the first 40, there was four head contacts and nothing was done about it, and then Lood [de Jager] gets the first one.
“The moment we start moaning… don’t try and convince people through the media because that’s what happened in the first week.
“They tried to convince people in the media that we’re slowing the game down and we’re not. The referees get caught up by that.”
Erasmus is also particularly bemused by the nature of the All Blacks’ accusation and is adamant that they scrum legally.
“It was obviously a plan to get that message out and we’re not going to stay quiet and just say: ‘You’re right, we’re walking around’, we weren’t f*****g walking around, we’re scrumming through,” he added.
“We’ve never, ever, ever been accused of walking around, so I don’t understand it.”