Rassie Erasmus looked a picture of innocence as he sat quietly in the coaches’ box watching Ireland pip the Springboks on Saturday, but it did not take long after the final whistle for the SA director of rugby to take a potshot at referee Nika Amashukeli.
Durban – Rassie Erasmus looked a picture of innocence as he sat quietly in the coaches’ box watching Ireland pip the Springboks 19-16 at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, but it did not take long after the final whistle for the SA director of rugby to take a potshot at referee Nika Amashukeli who had a night to forget with the whistle.
Erasmus was enjoying his first match back at a rugby ground after having served his suspension for criticising Australian ref Nic Berry in a video after the first Test between the Boks and British & Irish Lions last year.
It was also his 50th birthday, but celebrations would have been muted after his team had played well in many facets of the game but lost out on faulty goal-kicking and also inconsistent officiating.
It was with that in mind that Erasmus took to social media. With wisdom, he has learned to be more subtle, and after first thanking the Irish crowd for the great atmosphere and praising their knowledge of the game, he said the match was decided by “small margins” and he has an emoji finger pointing to a video clip in which he illustrates inconsistency.
Firstly, Erasmus shows the build-up to Ireland’s second try, where it appears that the ball is kicked out of a Bok breakdown by an Irish player, but play was allowed to go on before wing Mack Hansen scored.
Then he shows the ball being kicked out of an Ireland breakdown and the Boks are penalised, just as Eben Etzebeth gathers and bursts upfield.
The Boks would have scored, but the ref stopped play.
There is no question that the young Georgian referee got plenty wrong on the day, and the Boks did seem to come off second best in his judgments, with both Irish tries featuring forward passes.
It is also reassuring for Boks fans to see that the mischief-maker in Erasmus has not been extinguished by the World Rugby ban.
