Much focus will be on the performance of the referee during Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series between the Springboks and All Blacks.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has admitted his frustration with World Rugby’s ref protocols ahead of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series against the All Blacks. Picture: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus once again reiterated his frustration with World Rugby’s new referee protocols, introduced during the July Test window, where coaches are unable to interact with referees before or after matches as freely as previously.
Over the past few weeks, the All Blacks have been pushing a narrative through the media about the Springboks’ supposed slow game style, that could be interpreted as an effort to influence the referees ahead of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test series, and Erasmus admitted this could become much more common.
Under the current protocols, head coaches can meet with the referee before a game, but only if both coaches accept the invitation and attend together, while the post match submissions for clarity around decisions have been significantly reduced from what was previously allowed.
This has left coaches with far less clarity around decisions in matches, and last month led to an outburst from Italian coach Gonzalo Quesada after their match against the All Blacks, which led to a ban and formal warning from World Rugby.
Definitely frustration
Erasmus at the time admitted his confusion about the changes, and further went into it during a Bok press conference on Monday ahead of the first Test against the All Blacks at Ellis Park on Saturday.
“I think there’s definitely frustration from the coaches that you can’t have meetings with the referee if both teams don’t agree. It’s now at a stage where you almost accept both teams’ coaches aren’t always going to agree to a pre-match meeting,” explained Erasmus.
“I myself this week said, ‘No, no, we don’t need one,’ because it doesn’t help now, after they’ve played three games, and now we want to sort out things in three training sessions.
“We had to look at what they put on the Athlete Management System, which is a central system, and then 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 (going forward). If you want to get something out, you have to get it out here (through the media) because you can’t really talk to the referee sometimes.”
Alert refs
Erasmus explained that they used to be able to alert the referees to certain (obscure) plays that they were thinking of using, so that he could be well informed around the laws of it. They are no longer able to do that.
“There are small things which, in normal referee meetings, you alert them to. Now you can’t, because you have to have the meeting with the other coach. You can’t explain things that you might do (in front of the opposition coach).
“So I think teeing up the referees with things you want to do is very difficult, and I totally understand why the All Blacks voice 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’re arguing with them. So it’s a very natural thing to do it in the media now because of the protocols.”
