Twelve months after being suspended for his public criticism of refereeing decisions against the Springboks, South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus is up to his old tricks again.
Following back-to-back losses against Ireland and France, Erasmus has once more used Twitter as a platform to illustrate grievances with the officials in both fixtures. Warren Gatland led the British and Irish Lions on a tour of South Africa when Erasmus first earned the ire of many fans for airing his gripes online last year, and the Kiwi is disappointed to witness a repeat of the trend this autumn.
"We don't see other directors of rugby or head coaches doing the same thing. I think it's a little bit disappointing," the former Wales boss wrote for The Telegraph having taken in Scotland 's narrow defeat to New Zealand on Sunday. "I thought there were a couple of tough calls against Scotland, including one with Jamie Ritchie close to the line that was a scrum penalty against Scotland towards the end of the game where I couldn't really see an infringement. But, we don't see Gregor Townsend putting out videos like that afterwards.
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"The thing is, Rassie is such an influential person in World Rugby. The match officials will go and look at those moments again. There is a process in place for people to do reports after games and get feedback. And I would like to see Rassie follow that process.
"I can't particularly see a defence there for what he's doing. I don't think it's a great look for the game. We should adhere to the process. The last thing we need is coaches taking this media and making comments about the game."
World Rugby served Erasmus, 50, with a two-month suspension from the sport in November 2021 after it found him guilty of "attacking, disparaging and/or denigrating the game and match officials" during the 2021 Lions tour. It was during that summer an hour-long video of Erasmus circulated online, in which he critiqued decisions made by referee Nic Berry and television match official Marius Jonker during the first Lions Test.
Australian official Berry later accused Erasmus of "character assassination" and opened up on the difficulty he and his family faced following the public trial. There are legions of fans on social media—many of whom appear to have South African allegiances—who support Erasmus' actions and will vigorously defend the 2019 Rugby World Cup-winning coach.
"I really felt for Nic Berry on the British and Lions tour last year after the video Erasmus put out," Gatland continued. Georgian official Nika Amashukeli oversaw South Africa's 19-16 defeat to Ireland on November 5, while England's Wayne Barnes refereed their 30-26 loss to France a week later.
Erasmus tweeted clips in the aftermath of both defeats, signing off posts with apologies and assurances South Africa will improve. However, it's difficult to see beyond the sarcasm and faux humility, with Erasmus seemingly intending to highlight what he considers inconsistencies in the officiating.
"After every game you pick out things and send in clips where you want clarification and that's the process you go through," wrote former foe Gatland. "Referees, the good ones, will come back and put their hands up on calls they've got wrong and you accept that, because it's human nature. We're going to make mistakes, they can't see everything, things are happening so quickly and you understand people aren't going to see every situation."
Springboks flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit looks set to miss his side's final autumn fixtures against Italy and England after he was shown red for making head contact with France's Jonathan Danty on Saturday. That was one of the less controversial decisions at the Stade Velodrome, but it's Gatland's view that coaches have a responsibility to keep their contentions private.
The three-time Lions chief concluded: "You would like to think that someone will pull Erasmus aside, whether it's someone from the South African Rugby Union or their CEO or there's a phone call, to tell Rassie: 'I don't think you're doing yourself any favours, or World Rugby any favours by putting these things out on social media'. Let the public do that and go through the right processes."
