There was a time not that long ago when self-imposed social media bans were the order of the day and while most players nowadays merely used their social media platforms for banal sponsorship plugs, Rassie Erasmus has taken things to a whole new level.
witter was awash with excitement last year when the recent World Cup-winning coach began to share behind-the-scenes footage of fascinating motivational clips. It is rare to get that kind of insight into a professional environment, but Erasmus was happy to let the world in, safe in the knowledge that his Springboks side were riding high.
South Africa’s director of rugby didn’t exactly become a serial tweeter, quality not quantity and all that, yet in the last few weeks Erasmus has decided to use his considerable platform to highlight what he perceives to be harsh refereeing decisions against his team.
On the one hand, the drama has added to the intrigue of the Lions series, the more mind games the better, but there is a bigger issue at play here, which begs the question: is this really a road that rugby wants to go down?
The pressure on match officials is already enormous and that’s just the stuff we see during the 80 minutes.
Away from the pitch, opposition teams will always try and influence referees ahead of a big game, be that through messages in press conferences, or showing certain clips to the ref in their pre-game meetings.
It almost becomes a game within a game, but there comes a point when people will ask how much is too much?
Erasmus knew exactly what he was at a couple of weeks ago when he took the bizarre approach of responding to a news article about Warren Gatland calling for consistency from the officials in light of the South Africa ‘A’ win over his Lions side. Having responded with two videos of what he believed were high tackles by Owen Farrell, Erasmus’ message was clear to ref Nic Berry.
Read More
Then he retweeted what appeared to be a random egg-shaped account by the name of ‘Jaco Johan’. Our mystery man, who is one of only three people Erasmus follows (the other two? The Lions second-rows Maro Itoje and Alun-Wyn Jones), was on hand to help with some far better quality footage of the same incidents Erasmus had flagged earlier.
It seemed as though it was a mere coincidence that Eramsus’ real name is ‘Johan’ until the same account appeared on the radar again following the Boks’ defeat to the Lions. This time Jaco Johan popped up with more footage, again highlighting incidents of foul play that the Boks felt went against them.
Erasmus was happy to engage with Jaco Johan before he went on to post another video with the same yellow oval circle graphics that the apparent random account had been using.
The back and forth subsided, but the fun and games continued when Erasmus responded to a Twitter account named ‘Province Fan’, who tweeted another similar video with yet more gripes about the officiating.
“Is this you again Jaco Johan? Enough!!! I think they get it now,” Erasmus wrote. All the while Erasmus’ Twitter is dominating the agenda, it takes away from South Africa’s poor show, which is perhaps what he wants.
The Lions were doing their best to avoid getting dragged into it and while Mako Vunipola did engage when asked about Erasmus singling him out, defence coach Steve Tandy took a wide berth, but did insist that making complaints was fine as long as it was done via proper channels.
So, that probably means we won’t be seeing Gatland joining Twitter any time soon – although what this strange saga really needs is Erasmus to respond to an egg-shaped account with a name like ‘WazzaG2021’.
Last weekend’s TMO Marius Jonker was put in a difficult position, but there was no sign of home-town decisions, and, in fact, having a South African video referee favoured the Lions. Berry didn’t get everything right, with the Boks frustrated, but seeing their director of rugby take to Twitter to voice his displeasure goes against the norm.
Ben O’Keefe is the man in the middle for the second Test and while the pressure is already growing on the Kiwi, he can at least get a head start on his meeting with Erasmus later this week by having a look at his Twitter gripes.
Gatland loves engaging in mind games as much as Erasmus, but right now you get the feeling that the South African supremo’s Twitter frenzy is playing right into the Lions’ hands.