By Kevin Rademeyer, Sports Journalist.
Photo Credit: Springboks X Account.
Live From Cape Town: Rassie Erasmus was in no mood for diplomacy after the Springboks had done the job on the field.
South Africa beat New Zealand 33 26 at DHL Stadium on Saturday to level the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series at 1 1 and reclaim the world No 1 ranking. But the victory was followed by an unusually heated exchange over the scrum, with Erasmus angrily rejecting suggestions from All Blacks coach Dave Rennie that South Africa’s pack was gaining an advantage by “walking around” at scrum time.
“We’re not f***ing walking around. We’re scrumming through,” Erasmus said.
The comment came after Rennie again raised the issue, despite New Zealand earning no scrum penalties in Cape Town. South Africa won one, five fewer than in the first Test at Ellis Park, where the All Blacks’ scrum was repeatedly penalised.
Rennie felt the situation had improved. “The scrums were better tonight,” he said. “Angus [Gardner] was pretty strong around setting a mark and then trying to keep the hookers in the same sort of spacing.”
But Rennie still believed there were technical issues for his side to address. “We’ll give a bit of feedback around that. That’s still a bit of an issue for us because they’re able to walk around and go straight through our tighthead.”
That was enough to change Erasmus’s mood.
“It’s the first time ever in history that people are talking about us walking around,” the Springbok coach said. “Why would we all of a sudden start walking around in this?”
He pointed to the first half, when several New Zealand scrums collapsed and were reset, and questioned why the same scrutiny was not being applied when the All Blacks were under pressure.
Erasmus also referred to the officiating around head contact, saying South Africa had chosen not to complain about incidents in the first Test but had seen four instances in the opening 40 minutes in Cape Town go unpunished before Lood de Jager was yellow carded.
The argument was a sideshow to a Test that produced a fascinating statistical contradiction.
New Zealand dominated the stats this week, but unlike at Ellis Park, South Africa took their chances. Every mistake had a price.
New Zealand coach Dave Rennie was left to rue opportunities that never became points. “It’s a game of inches,” he said. “We lost some lineouts and the South Africans had penalties in areas that they converted into points.”
He added: “If we had taken a couple of our first half opportunities, it may have been a different story.” That was the difference between the sides.
The third Test in Johannesburg now carries a different weight. South Africa have regained the momentum, but the statistics suggest they will need another performance built on pressure, discipline and ruthless execution.