Kieran Read: ‘People would say Rassie Erasmus has always lost his head’

Legendary All Black Kieran Read has claimed that Rassie Erasmus is the “absolute king” of trying to influence the officials in the wake of the second Test fallout.

Following South Africa’s 33-26 victory over New Zealand in Cape Town on Saturday, the Boks boss hit back at Dave Rennie in his post-match press conference.

Rennie accused the hosts of illegal scrummaging which prompted an X-rated response from Erasmus, who fumed: “We’re f*****g walk around”.

That outburst came at the end of a fascinating week with the back-to-back world champions making a number of late changes for the encounter at DHL Stadium.

Five alterations to the Springboks team named

On the Friday, both Cheslin Kolbe and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu came into the starting XV before the entire front-row was altered just prior to kick-off.

“First and foremost, I don’t think I’ve seen Rassie wear a suit and tie to a Test match before. People would say he’s always lost his head and it’s whether he’s sometimes on an even keel or not,” Read told the GBRANZ podcast.

“He was up and down this week, wasn’t he? Making changes the day of the game, just as he’s handing in the team sheet half-an-hour before kick-off. It’s his reasoning and he’s good at telling his story and good at the narrative around it.

“The thing around that, though, is that if this was a World Cup game or maybe a Nations Championship, you can’t do that, you’ve got to name your team and that’s what it’s got to be. You can’t swap out unless there are injuries.”

Rassie Erasmus hints that Springboks could repeat controversial selection ploy

With show host Andy Rowe quick to point out the hypocrisy of Erasmus, given his own rant during the 2021 Lions series, criticising Rennie for bringing the referees into the spotlight, Read admitted that he “doesn’t mind” the officiating discourse.

“I’m interested in it because you want to hear it. Rassie starts talking and you want to keep your eyeballs on it and listen,” he said. “I don’t mind it because all he’s trying to do is influence slightly what’s going to come in the next two Tests around refereeing decisions.

“They’re going to watch Dave Rennie complain about their angles, so both of them are planting little seeds for the refereeing teams to maybe look at when they’re reviewing the footage.

“It’s part of it and with Rassie you’ve got to expect it. Coaches have been doing this for a long time, but Rassie is the absolute king of it.”

50/50s not going the way of the world’s best

There was a suggestion from Erasmus that certain things, which went against the Springboks, were missed in both Tests, and Read gave an interesting insight into how he thinks the officials might view the sport’s top team.

“When you’re at the top, and the All Blacks were like this for a long time, the perception is when you’re the best in the world is you’ll get none of the 50/50s go your way,” he said.

“That where he’s probably coming from, right? Luckily right now, we’ve got two best teams in the world, so the refs got to do the 50/50 one way or the other.

“Generally, you feel sometimes it goes against you because subconsciously in the back of the ref’s mind, he’s like, ‘we can’t have the All Blacks be this dominant, or the Springboks be this dominant, for so long’. I think that’s your perception when you’re at that level.

“A grain of salt is what you’ve got to look at from an All Blacks point of view with what he’s talking about, but he’s passionate.”

READ MORE: ‘It was classic Rassie’ – Ex-Springboks boss weighs in on Erasmus’ controversial late changes