Rassie Erasmus fronted up a press conference on Monday after naming his team three days earlier than required amid ongoing controversy in the Greatest Rivalry series
15:41, 31 Aug 2026Updated 16:45, 31 Aug 2026
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has taken centre stage again(Image: Getty Images)
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus turned up at a press conference on Monday and launched a passionate defence of himself and his side, accusing New Zealand counterpart Dave Rennie of breaking protocols with his post-match comments following Saturday’s second Test.
Erasmus has been in the headlines throughout the compelling Greatest Rivalry series and found himself at the centre of more controversy on the weekend.
First, he was accused by several pundits and fans of disregarding the spirit of the game after publicly naming a side to face New Zealand that proved to be very different from the one that took the field, including a completely changed front row that was only announced an hour before kick-off.
Then, after being told of accusations made by Rennie that South Africa were continually breaking the laws at scrum time by “walking around” the set-piece (moving sideways before the set to get a better angle of attack), the Springboks boss lost his cool in his post-match press conference on Saturday, swearing in front of gathered journalists and cameramen.
He has since faced attacks from the New Zealand media, including calls for World Rugby to take action against him for his various perceived indiscretions throughout the series.
Now, after naming his side for the third Test three days earlier than required, Erasmus fronted the media on Monday to address the furore and accuse the Kiwis of being the ones who have broken protocols.
Speaking about Rennie and his angry reaction to the comments, Erasmus said: “My frustration was not so much that that’s his opinion, but one can’t make opinion facts and the moment it gets said as a fact, I mean, really, there’s now clear protocols in play. You send five clips into AMS, which is a system, and there you raise your concerns.
“The protocols are clearly in place. You must have a pre-match meeting with the referee with the other coach present and that’s how you raise your things; you put them on the AMS system.
“So, I am going to say it again: after the game, when you guys told me that in the media conference, it’s just frustrating because once you put a narrative out like that, everybody starts focusing on that.
“I myself would not be a person that talks with authority about scrums, but I do know how Daan (Human) coaches the scrums. And we will never ever in our life say let’s walk around the team because that’s not our strength. That’s not how we do this.
“So I’m not frustrated with the fact that Dave wants to get it out. But there’s a lot of things I want to get out about New Zealand, but I only have five clips I can send in post the match. So if I name another four here, it’s against the protocol because the protocol is sending through the AMS.
“So I can guarantee you we don’t want to put more pressure on the referees through the media. If you talk about changing three players before a match, which was tactical, and people say that’s against the laws and against the spirit of the game, surely coming to a press conference and naming things that are out there now, it’s another tactic to do it that way.
“That’s more the frustrating part. I’m friends with him [Rennie], but I understand what he’s trying to do. As long as that doesn’t succeed, but Nika [Amashukeli] is a sharp referee. He comes from Georgia, he knows scrums, he has coached Georgian, he has played rugby himself. He knows how scrums get handled and that was the frustration.”
The scrum has been a big topic of debate(Image: Getty Images)
Erasmus was also asked about the alterations he made to the named side ahead of the second Test, which saw changes at fly-half and wing days after the initial announcement, followed by the 11th-hour front row reshuffle that put Gerhard Steenekamp, 39-year-old Deon Fourie and Thomas du Toit – who were all named on the bench on Monday – in the starting side ahead of Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw.
Such a move would be against the laws in World Rugby competitions such as the World Cup, but the Springboks coach exploited the fact the Greatest Rivalry series has been organised by the two teams and is not overseen by SANZAAR. As such, Erasmus was not technically bound by the normal rules that dictate sides must be named at least 48 hours before kick-off, with changes only allowed afterwards in the event of injuries.
“I see there’s a bit of an issue with that,” he said.
“You know, an hour before the match you can give in your team sheet; if it’s within your 23 you can swap the whole bench around and play the other guys, that’s not against the laws of the game.
“For all honesty, we thought it’s going to be a really wet game and I’m serious about that. I mean, there’s no doubt that heavier guys scrum better on heavier fields and lighter guys like hard fields.
“And the front row that we started with, the pitch was nice and hard and was dry, and between Deon and Gerhard and Thomas, Thomas is one of the smallest guys around but certainly Deon and Gerhard are a little bit less bulky than Ox and Wilco and so on.
“So yes, we thought, let’s look at the weather, let’s get to the pitch, let’s see how wet it really is. And when we got there, the pitch was dry and hard and firm, and that’s why we picked it that way, and this weekend we are going to do it the other way around.”