The Springboks have hit back hard at allegations that they are “slowing the ball down” by delivering a blunt message: You do what you want when you have the ball, but don’t tell us how to play our game.
The war of words has been slowly escalating since Dave Rennie made the assertion that teams were deliberately slowing down the game against them - pointedly referring to the Springboks and it was followed up by comments later on from Tana Umaga and Codie Taylor in press conferences.
And while it is clear that it is part of mind games and the phony war that is being played in the lead-up to the first test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry on Saturday, the Boks were having none of it, with referee analyst and former test referee Jaco Peyper joining Erasmus at the Monday press conference.
Bok coach Rassie Erasmus hinted that while New Zealand were trying to sell the narrative that there were two very contrasting styles at play, and New Zealand wanted to speed up the game while the Boks wanted to kill it, in reality it wasn’t the case.
STATISTICS TELL A DIFFERENT STORY
Statistics show the Boks score on average 5.5 tries a test match since 2024, and since Tony Brown’s arrival at least, they have not been anywhere near to the side that was accused of playing “anti-rugby”.
“Well I think there's always three truths. New Zealand's truth, your truth, the world's truth and then what we believe and then there's the truth, die waarheid. Waarheid is the Afrikaans word for truth.
“Now the waarheid is our last two games against New Zealand in Auckland and in Wellington. People can go and look at those games, were those slow games? New Zealand beat us in the first one in Auckland, protected their record there and then we got a good result in the second one.
“We think there's a certain way you win World Cups and we think that's a grind. We think when you're under pressure on your attack it's very tough to keep cohesion - if the pressure is very big and you start fumbling a few balls and then you're stuck to your guns.
“We try to find the balance between that and when games are really clutch and crunch that you have a system that you can fall back onto which protects the player sometimes from not always having the confidence to do things.
“But since Tony's been with us, we feel we're attacking alright, we feel we're doing not too badly. But we always want to keep the - I'm not talking about New Zealand's mindset - we want to keep the thing, listen we've got something to fall back on when the pressure is really tough.”
Peyper chimed in at some of the allegations that the huddle formed before lineouts is a problem and time-wasting.
PEYPER CLARIFIES LINEOUT LAW
Peyper latched onto Erasmus’s comments regarding reports about SA’s sides slowing down play and said: “The law is very clear. From the moment the referee puts his foot down to mark the spot – not from the whistle, but from when the foot goes down – there is 30 seconds to form a lineout or scrum. Not to get the ball in, but to form.
“We have to adhere to that and we train for it. You can do whatever you want inside those 30 seconds. There's nothing in the law that says you can't idle before the mark is given.
“Once the referee gives the mark, the 30 seconds starts. Even if you attempt a quick throw-in after the referee has made his mark, the clock is already ticking. However, if the defending team is ready to play, they don't have to wait for you. That’s where the pressure comes.
“The narrative about slowing down at a set piece at altitude is something I've seen. I've refereed many Super Rugby games where travelling teams slow down the game, but you can also slow down the game by continuously infringing at the breakdown or maul and breaking the game tempo that way. The good thing is there are strong referees in these matches with clear guidelines.”
Erasmus added his bit: “If in those 30 seconds you want to go down and pray, that is your right.”
REFEREE PROTOCOLS UNPOPULAR
With the new referee protocols, which were issued without any consultation to the teams involved, teams aren't allowed to meet with referees before a test anymore unless the other coach is present. And teams are limited with the amount of clips they can send through after games, leading to frustration among sides.
“I think there's definitely frustration among the coaches that you can't have meetings with the referee if both teams don't agree. It's got to a stage where you almost accept both teams’ coaches aren't always going to agree for a pre-match meeting.
“I myself this week said no, we don't need one because, you know, it doesn't help now after they played four games and now we want to sort out things in three training sessions. We had to look at what they put on AMS (the system of clips that is used by teams) and that's a central system and then they'll sort of learn from what the answers are from World Rugby.
“I don't think it's a tactic, I think it's an obvious thing, if you want to get something out you have to get it out here because you can't really talk to the referee. Sometimes there's small things in normal referee meetings where you would alert the referee - like we might do a midfield maul, just be aware of that, know the law around that. Now you can't because you have to have the meeting with the other coach - you can't say listen here we're maybe doing a front peel in the line-out, maybe don't stand there when we do the front peel because you might not see if it's obstruction or not.
DIFFICULT FOR COACHES
“So I think teeing up the referees with things you want to do is very difficult and I totally understand why the All Blacks voiced some of their concerns. If they genuinely believe we slow down the game, they can't say it in a meeting with us being present and we argue with them that we're not slowing it down.
“It's a very natural thing to do it in the media now because the protocols is definitely, I feel and I know a lot of international coaches feel that way, it's very clear what you must do and what you can't do, it's in place and we understand that it's there, I don't understand why it's like that.
But yes, I think there's definitely now a gap between coaches, scrum coaches and referees and small tactical things and then you voice your opinion in the media, that's the only option.”
The Boks will name their side for the first test on Thursday.