Warren Gatland has joined the attack on South African rugby supremo Rassie Erasmus over his post-match tweets.
At least some sections of South African rugby appear headed down a childish path, one which has their World Cup-winning coach Erasmus labelled the “Donald Trump of rugby”.
In what looks to be an act of open defiance against World Rugby, Erasmus has resumed his social media slurs against referees having just returned from a one-year ban.
Adding fuel to the fire, Springboks wing Cheslin Kolbe’s wife Layla used Instagram to suggest that referee Wayne Barnes was on the take after France’s win over South Africa, according to one leading British newspaper.
New Zealand is hardly clean in this respect — the All Blacks and fans spent years blaming Barnes and his touch judges for the World Cup quarter-final defeat against France in 2007.
Indeed, All Blacks coach Graham Henry revealed in his biography he briefly contemplated that match-fixing was behind the loss.
But Erasmus has taken ref-bashing to a different level, with sarcastic posts after tests.
He was fully banned for two months last year after putting out an hour-long video attacking Australian referee Nic Berry when the British and Irish Lions were in South Africa. The punishment included being sidelined from any match-day activities for a year, leaving him to watch tests from his hotel room until this month.
Last year’s Lions coach Gatland, in his latest Daily Telegraph column, said: “I can’t particularly see a defence there for what he’s doing. I don’t think it’s a great look for the game.”
Gatland, the Chiefs’ rugby director, added: “We should adhere to the process. The last thing we need is coaches taking this into the media and making comments about the game.
“I really felt for Nic Berry on the British and Lions tour last year after the video Erasmus put out.
“The first response was really a defence from the Australian Rugby Union before World Rugby, and it even took about four days for the ARU to say something about it.”
World Rugby slammed Erasmus on six charges, and former All Black Gatland now wants South Africa to call him to order.
“You will like to think that someone will pull Erasmus aside … tell Rassie ‘I don’t think you’re doing yourself any favours, or world rugby any favours by putting these things out on social media’. Let the public do that.”
The latest Erasmus release of video clips includes French fullback Thomas Ramos putting a forearm to Kolbe’s head and the penalty against Willie le Roux for a forward pass, during the Springboks’ loss in Marseille.
I know guys and accept it, we really only have ourselves to blame as the French were awsome both on the field (players)and off the field (supporters)!! We just have to fix these fundamental errors like tackle technique and simple passing 👇🏿Sorry 🇿🇦 we know 💔 pic.twitter.com/hte6ggyXk9
The accompanying captions, which could be described as disingenuous and sarcastic, included “I know guys and accept it, we really only have ourselves to blame as the French were awesome”.
Erasmus, who coached South Africa to the 2019 World Cup triumph, defended his posts by claiming he was “trying to inform the South African fans” and that people did not have to follow his tweets.
“I did not once mention a referee,” he said. “If people put a narrative on that, I can’t control that, unfortunately.”
Layla Kolbe’s social media showed the Ramos fend on her husband with the caption “Yip. Well done France” along with an emoji of a roll of cash.
The Times said this appeared to insinuate that match officials had been bribed, and her Instagram post was later deleted.
Wales Online said Erasmus had “become a figure of ridicule and embarrassment with his paranoid Twitter crusade”.
WO’s Ben James wrote: “Oscar Wilde famously said sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence, but then he’d never been subjected to Erasmus sub-tweeting hours after full-time like a mardy teen who never fully grew out of using cynicism as a self-defence mechanism.
“They’ll get some bad calls, but so does every nation. With a fervent and blindly loyal Twitter and media following, it’s easy to see why some have compared Erasmus to Donald Trump on social media.”
Northampton Saints director Tim Percival called Erasmus “the Donald Trump of rugby”.
