{"id":52646,"date":"2025-08-08T12:24:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T12:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/52646\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T12:24:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T12:24:06","slug":"matt-williams-hits-back-in-x-feud-with-rassie-erasmus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/52646\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Williams hits back in X feud with Rassie Erasmus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Outspoken pundit and former coach Matt Williams<\/a> has fired back at Rassie Erasmus<\/a> after the Springboks boss mocked the Australian online.<\/p>\n

Erstwhile Scotland<\/a> and Leinster<\/a> head coach Williams has long been critical of elements of South African rugby under Erasmus, particularly the use of the so-called Bomb Squad bench strategy, which he has repeatedly claimed poses unnecessary risks to player safety.<\/p>\n

The 65-year-old has rarely pulled punches when discussing the Springboks, and Erasmus, never shy of an online dig himself, has clearly been paying attention.<\/p>\n

After Williams\u2019 latest comments on Off the Ball, in which he criticised the standard of rugby and the off-field behaviour during the British & Irish Lions<\/a> tour of South Africa, the 52-year-old took to X, formerly Twitter, posting a screenshot of the Australian\u2019s record as Scotland head coach, highlighting a \u201c17.65%\u201d win rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt Williams, the rugby union coach, had a 17.65% win percentage during his tenure coaching Scotland. He coached the team in 17 matches, winning only 3 of them. Two of those wins were against Tier 2 nations, Japan and Samoa, according to Wikipedia,\u201d read the image text.<\/p>\n

Erasmus added the caption: \u201cHeal Sir Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams was quick to reply, posting: \u201cHi Rassie, playing the man and not the ball again? Always the sign of weak argument,\u201d and \u201cDelighted you listened to every word\u201d.<\/p>\n

The latest exchange follows Williams\u2019 fresh attack on the Springboks in the wake of the British and Irish Lions\u2019 series win over Australia. Speaking on Off The Ball, he revisited the 2021 Lions tour to South Africa, describing it as \u201cone of the worst tours ever\u201d and \u201cthe worst games of international rugby I think I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that both management teams conducted themselves was disgraceful,\u201d he said. \u201cRassie was running on the field as a water carrier. There was a leaked video criticising referees, ringing people up, and the style of rugby was an abomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll they did was kick across the field and chase it. It was not played in a good spirit. It was aggressive \u2014 I have no problem with that \u2014 but it wasn\u2019t in the spirit of rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams contrasted that with the recent tour to Australia, claiming Andy Farrell\u2019s side had restored the Lions\u2019 image by playing an attacking brand of rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came to Australia, and from the first second, Andy Farrell and his coaching staff made the Lions play a running game. They put the ball in hand, they took chances and made errors, because it\u2019s high-risk rugby, but jeez, it was entertaining. It was fabulous to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outspoken pundit and former coach Matt Williams has fired back at Rassie Erasmus after the Springboks boss mocked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-52646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}