Ryan dismisses Erasmus 'friendly fire' as All Blacks prepare for harder second Test

New Zealand forwards coach Jason Ryan played down a public spat with South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus on Sunday morning, describing the Springbok coach’s pointed post-match comments as little more than the pressure of Test rugby playing out in public.

The row stems from Saturday’s first Test in Cape Town, which South Africa won. Erasmus had already raised eyebrows before kick-off by swapping his starting front row with his bench unit at the last minute, citing drier-than-forecast conditions as the reason. After the final whistle, he turned his fire on All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie, who had expressed concern over South Africa’s scrum tactics — specifically, an alleged late side-step before setting the scrum designed to overload New Zealand’s tighthead props. Erasmus called the accusation a “nonsense” and the “first time ever in history” such a charge had been levelled at him, adding that New Zealand were “moaning” about the refereeing.

Ryan was unbothered. “It’s a bit of friendly fire, isn’t it? I think there’s been some interesting comments made in the media and that sort of thing, but that’s the pressure of Test footy,” he said. “But I think we’ve just got to concentrate on what we want to get better on this week.”

On the late front-row switch, Ryan said New Zealand had prepared for both permutations. “Traditionally, you’ll know when we’ve played South Africa if a team’s been named at the start of the week, there’s often changes at the back end of the week. So we’ve got to prepare the best we can,” he said. “They kept the same ones, they just reversed them with starting and finishing. So we’d prepared for them either way around.”

Rennie had already stated in his post-match press conference that the late team-sheet change had no bearing on New Zealand’s game plan, a position Ryan echoed without elaboration.

When asked whether Erasmus — whose reputation for psychological gamesmanship prompted sections of the Cape Town crowd to chant “he’s in your head” to the tune of the Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ — had gotten inside his head, Ryan was wry. “No, no, he’s not in my head. My forward pack are in my head.”

As the longest-serving member of the current All Blacks coaching group, having survived two regime changes, Ryan said the experience helps him stay focused on the series target rather than the noise around it. The second Test, he noted, would bring its own complications. “Second Tests are always that little bit harder. Everyone knows a little bit more about each other, and I guess they probably found out a couple more things about us,” he said.