- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
PARIS – South Africa coaching director Rassie Erasmus has explained how the Springboks changed up how they played in the wake of his controversial tweets about official following last year’s loss to France.
South Africa turned the tables on France in a thrilling 29-28 quarterfinal win in Paris on Monday (AEDT).
In November 2022, the Springboks went down by four points to the French in Marseille, sparking a series of Erasmus social media posts that were criticised by, among others, Wales coach Warren Gatland and former top referee Nigel Owens.
After each side received a red card from Wayne Barnes, Erasmus posted a series of tweets using video clips of the action, accompanied by comments pointing out areas the Springboks needed to improve in. It was widely taken that Erasmus was being sarcastic – although he argued at the time he was being genuine.
Owens was scathing: “Once you start putting things out there on social media questioning decisions, that’s not what this game is about, I don’t think. I don’t think this it’s right and I don’t like it.
“Go through the proper channels, and as long as everyone is open and honest and transparent… that is the way forward, not [to do it] on social media.”
Since then Erasmus has tried to recruit Ownes and although the former ref didn’t come onto their staff, the pair have been in regular contact.
Erasmus said he has already spoken to Owens since the quarter-final triumph.
“To be honest with you, and I am serious when I say this, I will never forget that post that last French game,” Erasmus told reporters.
“I tweeted a few tweets and a lot of people said it was controversial but I can remember my caption there was ‘we will have to adapt and make things clearer for referees, we can’t just rely on mauling, scrumming and close-contact work where it is very difficult for the referee to make the correct decision’. Because it’s very dynamic and it’s busy and there’s a little bit of grey areas there.
Rassie Erasmus, Coach of South Africa, looks on prior to the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Quarter Final match between France and South Africa at Stade de France on October 15, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Justin Setterfield – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
“So, we had to adapt. Also to try and score tries through more open, fluent, running rugby. And you could see in our try-scoring tally there’s a lot scored by our backs, more than our forwards.
“If you only rely on a certain aspect of the game which is very tough for the referee to referee and he gets two (decisions) wrong but you only relying on those three or four of five opportunities that you get, 50 per cent of your opportunities are gone. But if you fire shots in open play, general play from the top of lineouts or counter-attack, it’s clearer decisions for the referee and easier to make.
“As a team we don’t want to be this wonderful playing rugby team that the whole world loves, but we do want to score tries.”
He said the team had changed its ways after that game. Before Eben Etzebeth received a yellow card for a head clash in Paris, the Boks hadn’t lost a player to a card. They only conceded six penalties against France, and it was the home side left bemoaning the big calls.
“What did you think from the outside? It’s hard to say because there’s a lot of disappointment and frustration. We want to see the images again – which will give us even more disappointment and even more frustration – but I think some clear and obvious things weren’t whistled,” said France skipper Antoine Dupont.
“At crucial moments, we could have had a penalty. When you’ve gone forward 60 metres and you’re slowed down in the rucks, it’s pretty easy to whistle. I don’t want to sound bitter, moaning about the refereeing because we lost the match, but I’m not sure the refereeing was up to the challenge.”
The performance of Ben O’Keeffe divided the teams and fans, It was a similar case in England’s win over Fiji where the Pacific Islanders felt Frenchman Mathieu Raynal acted with ‘unconscious bias’ towards the tier one team.
Erasmus insisted: “Since we’ve changed our way, no matter if we are correct and the referees are wrong, respect must always be shown.
“Our whole motto has been let’s respect the referees. It works both ways. He’s going to make mistakes, we’re going to make mistakes. And the frustration we had in the past, and the lack of communication because of various things with Covid … that is in the past. There’s a nice protocol in place, it’s easy to communicate to them.
“I wouldn’t like to comment on what they (France) said about the referee. We are just working on accepting that there will be mistakes on both sides, which is something that we had to get right and we had to earn the respect back and I think it’s slowly happening.”
Pieter-Steph Du Toit and Kwagga Smith of South Africa celebrate victory at full-time following the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Quarter Final match between France and South Africa at Stade de France on October 15, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
Erasmus also expressed surprise at the open nature of the four quarterfinals – all of them hugely exciting.
“I was surprised how in the quarter-finals they were so many tries scored. That was something different. I always thought it would be a grind, it was a grind, it was a squeeze, it was tight at the end, Erasmus said.
“But I guess when we go into semi-finals, again defence, scrum, mauls, tactical kicking and sometimes brilliance like [Damian] Penaud and [Matthieu] Jalibert and those guys can do and the same with the English team, from [Owen] Farrell right through to [Courtney] Lawes. They’ve got tremendous players – [Ellis] Genge – who can do wonderful things during the game.
“But again, as it get’s closer to that final, and hopefully we are in that final if we get past England, those deep mechanical, fundamentals of the game will always start getting more and more important.”
The 2019 champions appear to timing their run perfectly and bookmakers expect them to get past England and meet New Zealand – who will have their semi against Argentina – in the final in just under a fortnight.
The coaching team had received criticism for their rest and rotation policy, particularly in 2023, but Erasmus said it was paying dividends.
“Our average player is 162 minutes in the World Cup,” he said.
“Matches before the World Cup, where we played Rugby Championship and we played Wales and New Zealand again, I know people got frustrated when we were chopping and changing and I am not saying I am right [but] luckily, touch wood, up until this morning we don’t have any injuries from last night’s game.
“I couldn’t talk for other teams but I do know us and the England team will definitely have a close match because their numbers of spreading the load is not so much higher than ours.”