SOUTH AFRICA'S DIRECTOR OF RUGBY Rassie Erasmus has subtly questioned some of the referee's calls from the South Africa v Ireland game last Saturday.
Ireland went on to cement their place as the best ranked team in the world by beating the world champions 19-16 in front of a packed Aviva. Tries from Josh van der Flier and Mack Hansen gave Ireland their first win of the three game Autumn Nations Series this month.
Ireland fought hard for their win, but according to the former Munster coach Erasmus questioned the referee Nika Amashukeli's display in a clip on Twitter.
The South African thanked the Irish supporters for the atmosphere, but said the game was a game of big battles, but small margins. A clip accompanied the tweet highlighting what he was talking about.
The tweet read: " Tough test match, thanks for all the support from, also thanks to the Ireland supporters at the Aviva, you definitely understand the game and it's great to play in an atmosphere like yesterday ! Surely was a game of big battles, but small margins."
Erasmus’s video clip shows two incidents where players appeared to kick the ball in the ruck. The first went unpunished and led to Ireland’s second try, the second was punished as the game was drawing to a close and helped the home side see the game out.
Tough test match, thanks for all the support from 🇿🇦, also thanks to the Ireland supporters at the Aviva, you definetly understand the game and its great to play in an atmosphere like yesterday ! Surely was a game of big battles,but small margins 👇🏿 pic.twitter.com/Jcjci2Jlvo
— Rassie Erasmus (@RassieRugby) November 6, 2022
This was the 50- year-old's first game back since his comments after the British & Irish Lions Tour in South Africa.
Erasmus was banned for two months from all rugby activities and from matchday activities for a further 10 months having been found guilty of threatening match officials at the time.
Rugby fans hit back at the World Cup winning coach on Twitter after his comments.
One Twitter user said: "Now Rassie, please stop it with all of this, it's not funny, it's certainly not clever and you've been banned for doing this and you've literally only been able to come back in the last few games. It was a hell of a test match, why can't you just leave it at that..."
While another said: "Rassie, maybe blame selections, impotent game-plan, lack of attack coaching as the reasons for losing half of the games this year…such an amazing pool of players to choose from so these losses are on the coaching team and nothing else."
Ireland will play Fiji next Saturday at 1pm.
See More: Autumn Nations Series, Ireland, Rugby, South Africa
