Erasmus dismisses Rennie's walking-scrum accusation after Springboks level series

Rassie Erasmus rejected Dave Rennie’s accusation that the Springboks were illegally walking in the scrum, responding with barely concealed fury at his post-match press conference in Cape Town on Saturday after South Africa’s 33-26 win over New Zealand levelled the four-Test Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series at one apiece.

Rennie had raised the issue moments earlier at the All Blacks’ own media briefing, suggesting referee Angus Gardner had managed the scrum spacing but that South Africa were still able to “walk around and go straight through our tighthead.” He described Gardner’s overall handling as “a reasonable job” while flagging the scrum direction as a technical concern his team would address.

Erasmus was having none of it. “It’s the first time ever in history that people are talking about us walking around,” he said. “Why would we all of a sudden walk around? The first six scrums New Zealand had, every single one collapsed. It was reset, reset, reset, reset. Why is it only on their ball that the scrum collapses every single time? Don’t come with that nonsense.”

The Springboks head coach broadened his rebuttal to cover the wider series narrative, accusing Rennie of attempting to influence referees through the media — a tactic he said had already been deployed ahead of the first Test at Ellis Park. “Don’t try to convince the people through the media, because that’s what happened in the first week; they tried to convince people we slow the game down and we’re not,” Erasmus said. “We don’t want to stay quiet and just say ‘oh yeah, you’re right, we’re walking around’. We’re not f*cking walking around. We’re scrumming through.”

Erasmus also pointed to a yellow card shown to lock Lood de Jager in the 78th minute as another decision that had not gone South Africa’s way, and said he would not stay silent when he believed a false narrative was being constructed. “I apologise if I say things in the wrong way sometimes,” he acknowledged before pressing on, calling out Rennie directly for pushing what he labelled a dishonest storyline.

The match statistics offered some support for Erasmus’s position: South Africa finished with a 75 per cent success rate at scrum time, while New Zealand operated at 100 per cent — figures that complicate Rennie’s framing of the contest as one where the Springboks’ scrum tactics were the defining factor.

With the series tied heading into the final two Tests, the scrum battle — and the war of words around it — looks set to remain a central subplot.