Rassie Erasmus slams claims that new Springboks tactics are ‘against the spirit of the game’
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has hit back at claims that his team’s latest tactics deployed against Italy are “against the spirit of the game”.
South Africa controversially enforced a scrum in the first action of the match as Manie Libbok purposefully chipped the opening kick-off short and into the hands of Andre Esterhuizen.
The ploy didn’t work overly well in the end as the Boks conceded a free kick, which the Azzurri took quickly and went on the attack.
Backlash and Rassie hits back
Later in the match, the second new tactic debuted, as on two occasions the Springboks created a lineout in open play and formed a maul.
On the first occasion, they managed to draw in a host of Italian defenders with Grant Williams throwing a pinpoint pass out to Canan Moodie, with the latter speeding away to the try-line.
Hooker Malcolm Marx would score off the back of the maul on the second attempt after lock Ruan Nortje claimed the ball from a pass from scrum-half Williams.
Erasmus has since revealed that the open-play lineout tactic was a ploy that they copied from a schoolboy rugby team in South Africa after a video of it went viral on social media.
However, these tactics have proven to be controversial and angered many online.
Ex-referee Nigel Owens was one of those to express his concerns over the open-play lineout, posting: “The problem with that play is that you are unable to tackle the player in the air or his support jumpers so you can not defend it or compete.”
This came after a post hit out at the tactic, writing: “Dull, and not in the spirit of the game. It might be intuitive, but that doesn’t make it fun in the long term.”
Erasmus has now taken to social media to defend the tactics and pointed to a scrum between the Springboks and Italy, questioning if the latter’s tactics were also not in the spirit of the game.
“I guess one can always argue what is against the spirit of the game!! Some teams avoid scrums and others make sure they get scrums! Who’s wrong?” he wrote.
In the clip, Italy scrum-half Alessandro Fusco feeds the scrums by spinning the ball right through the set-piece, denying any sort of contest. This occurred in the first Test between the two teams a week earlier at Loftus.
