The All Blacks will play two tests away in South Africa next month
Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus will renew his rivalry with New Zealand after returning to South Africa’s top job
Scott Robertson will have his work cut out for him against the Springboks mastermind
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.
OPINION
As much as the two-test series in South Africa presents a significant challenge collectively for the target="_blank">All Blacks, it will also see head coach Scott Robertson thrust into an individual contest against his Springboks opposite Rassie Erasmus to own the media narrative.
It will be a contest where there will be no rules, nothing deemed off limits and based on Erasmus’ previous antics, he will be prepared to make any accusation or introduce any tactical or technical innovation to unsettle the All Blacks and/or the match officials.
Rugby Rassie-style is one of the game’s great adventures. No one quite knows what his next move will be, how he will find a way to throw opponents off their game, get inside their heads or manipulate the media to carry an agenda for him.
He’s a genius, a provocateur and an irritant all rolled into one complex but enormously effective coach, and how Robertson responds to him directly and indirectly will have a huge bearing on the outcome of the series.
In South Africa, there tends to be two distinct theatres for the battle to play out: there’s game day, but so too is there the media sphere – social and mainstream – and the latter can have a surprising impact on the former.
What gets said, and how, can get into players’ heads, cause coaches to second-guess themselves and, most significantly, Erasmus’ signature move is to highlight a technical or tactical gripe that he holds about an opponent with the aim of bringing it to the attention of the match officials.
When it comes to playing mind games, Erasmus’s rap sheet is long and colourful – and at times ethically dubious, bordering on recklessly irresponsible in an age in which officials face genuine hate speech and death threats on social media.
But so too have his antics, theatrics and social media postings been hugely effective in delivering the outcomes he wants, and Erasmus has redefined where a head coach can have influence in the international arena and what their job curtails.
His hour-long social media takedown of Australian referee Nic Berry in 2021 after the first Lions test felt like it was an unhinged, emotional reaction to defeat – but it was in fact, a calm, controlled and deliberate means to reshape the narrative around the officiating in tests two and three.
His forensic destruction of Berry’s performance and integrity was bad and mad and earned Erasmus a year’s ban, but it got his team what he wanted and delivered a series win.
And this is the thing with Erasmus: he’ll go wherever he thinks he needs to go to give his team an advantage.
In 2019 ahead of the pool match with New Zealand, he tried to claim referees had a long history of favouring the higher-ranked team – hinting that because their world ranking had fallen on the eve of the tournament, the All Blacks couldn’t expect to win the 50:50 calls anymore.
Ahead of the first test with Ireland this year, he boldly predicted the starting XV he thought the visitors would select.
On the field, he’s made some brave calls to put seven forwards on the bench, sub players after just 20 minutes, convert props to hookers and now he’s even using wing Cheslin Kolbe to throw to lineouts and feed scrums.
The man knows the power of theatre, of using the media to help his team and Erasmus has shown that he can’t just be ignored: he’s too powerful and too clever for his mind games to sit unattended, and Robertson will face his own personal examination in South Africa in how he goes about diluting, rebutting and responding to the inevitable provocations and jibes.
Scott Barrett in action during the 2022 victory at Ellis Park. Photo / Photosport
Just as Ellis Park is not a venue in which the All Blacks can afford to be bullied, nor are the back pages of the local and international media.
His job in South Africa will be to nullify Erasmus, to counter his every move and be the bold, confident, assured front-of-house leader the All Blacks need in what is easily the most hostile environment in world rugby.
To date, Robertson hasn’t had to indulge in this sort of verbal warfare and propaganda conflict and there is no evidential base to assess his ability to dance on his feet and to punch back with considered responses, but he obviously fancies his chances of giving as good as he gets.
When asked about the possibility of engaging with Erasmus once the All Blacks are in South Africa, he joked: “[I] wouldn’t want to go down [that route] too far, just in case.
“I know Rassie. I played against him. He’s one of the personalities of world rugby, isn’t he? I enjoy his commentary and the different angle of it,” Robertson said.
“Everyone loves a press conference with him, so [I’m] looking forward to locking horns.”
