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Rassie Erasmus sends another loaded tweet towards the All Blacks and Foster
By Kim Ekin
Springboks Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus’ active week on Twitter has continued after sharing a post seemingly aimed at the All Blacks and head coach Ian Foster.
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Erasmus earlier shared his thoughts following Foster’s disparaging comments around the ball-in-play time between South Africa and Ireland after New Zealand’s 96-17 win over Italy.
There was roughly a two minute difference in ball-in-play time between the two fixtures which the Director pointed out in his first public response to Foster.
He was back for more on the eve of the All Blacks’ clash with Uruguay, tweeting out statistics from the 1995 Rugby World Cup final played between the Springboks and All Blacks.
“Sorry MY bad here we go!!” he wrote in a veiled tweet.
“Interesting to see how and where the game has changed since the 1995 World Cup final.”
Sorry MY bad here we go!! Thanks to Stratus(#Mobii)for this data! Interesting to see how and where the game has changed since the 1995 World Cup final pic.twitter.com/hikN5cIau7
— Rassie Erasmus (@RassieRugby) October 5, 2023
The statistics shared show a ball-in-play time of 32 minutes which is nearly exactly the same as the All Blacks encounter with Italy last week.
By contrast the Springboks-Ireland pool match was roughly 30 minutes in total.
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Ian always a straight shooter and say it as it is! Have respect for him since he coached the Chiefs!! But I think 2 min more ball in play and a epic battle between Ireland and Boks is the game I would rather watch !! ( while saying that your boys were crisp and clinical 🤝) https://t.co/qeo7M4y5nv pic.twitter.com/nB2wzAWSZC
— Rassie Erasmus (@RassieRugby) September 30, 2023
The busy week on Twitter comes as South Africa enjoy their bye week in the south of France ahead of the final round of pool stage clashes.
Erasmus has offered his thoughts on the Ireland-Scotland game and clapped back at media personality Ger Gilroy after suggesting that he preferred to be in South Africa’s position rather than Ireland’s.
He continued the mind games by following two accounts, the official accounts of Scotland Rugby and Ireland Rugby.
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The Springboks players seem to be enjoying down time in Cassis where they have been sharing on social media time with family at the beach in the sun.
South Africa has to await the outcome of the clash to find out whether they will qualify for the quarter-finals with a pool exit still a possibility but extremely unlikely.
He really is a nasty piece of stuff as was proved when he was banned from rugby for a period of time. Men like him will never change & leave a stain on fair-minded rugby!
How exactly are his tweets nasty? Especially when compared to the crap that came from Ian Foster.. Are you another one of those guys that read a headline and post a comment? The journos know exactly how to control your thoughts
Fozzie won't notice the tweet - he's too busy flipping coins to decide his quarterfinal team….
It’s all mind games, nothing more nothing less. My pick is the Irish going home once again in the quarters. Boks VS France is harder to pick, but I would never bet against the boks.
All goes back to the Kiwi teams missing the SA teams in Super Rugby. ABs seem to have gone backwards..
Really badly. But I’d go back to the lions when it became obvious they were starting to struggle with the changing game.
I would assume the 1995 World Cup final lasting 100 minutes instead of 80 contributes to the 32:05 ball in play.
All blacks can complain about the “boring” Springboks from home soon. Go Ireland 🇮🇪 give them a good Suzie. On a serious note, rugby is beautiful because it’s a game of chess ♟️. Running around like headless chickens isn’t entertaining. If it was entertaining then people would go watch games that go 100-0. Zzzzzzz
Was a bit surprised to see Foster’s comments as it does make for a weak kind of complaining response particularly from a team that is completely non dominant against the teams that matter and yes sadly will have to agree that ABs best use of time in the coming week is firming up their summer holiday plans as I see only one winner in a probable quarter final with the men in green
Well said Kerry,on the money it's just a pity how a history shows it.
14-12 and 35-7 some proper history right there . Suzie travels I hear, better watch out!
I would rather see as much time with ball in hand as possible however setting up scrums and line out is a massively integral part of the game, just hoping for minimal pedantic penalties and a good free flowing game. Too much kicking bores the hell out of me especially when a lot of it's pretty mindless. They also need a drop field goals to 1 point, memories of Johnny Wilkinson popping them over from everywhere against the All Blacks
It was highlighted starkly to me when i tried to watch an U18 game and kept skipping forward at scrums and penalty’s too much.
They simply take twice as long, to do anything, than they need to at international level.
I tell you what hasnt changed since the 1995 world cup final Rassie SA havent been stripped of their title for deliberatley posioning the AB a day before the Final - there was no way SA reunification celebrations were going to disrupted by the easily the best team NZ - something had to be done - Suzie the waitress story was just a dead end doggy bone they cocked up to throw the world off the real scent - what was and still is starrying us all in the face is SA intelligence services and the SARFU had one last assignment before white rule was reversed - Do anything and everything to ensure a SA victory amd geez they almost stuffed it up because NZ took them to extra tme thats how good they were It is a SA national disgrace and a World Rugby Scandal - their biggest of all Scandals buried just like govts do with their corruption treason fraud and ge nocide of their citizens The world and the game has been hijacked by freemasons Govts Officials Coaches Players Sponsors Media and the hidden hands behind the scenes directing almost every major sporting event and world crisis Any sport that allows betting is corrupt - we cannot believe anything they say and yet the programmed dummies out there let it pass over them like a smoking joint - are we at the stage where the world wants corruption in their lives
Anyway tell you what SA are out in the quarters France will see to that. NZ will make the Finals
Let’s talk about how NZ had to arrange their home WC win in 2011, making sure SA get blown out of the QFs in what must have been one of the most laughable displays of “refereeing” in the game’s history. Then they still choked against France in the final, and had to rob them with some more dodgy officiating in order to help their team over the finish line. It seems everybody outside of NZ agree that the French were robbed there.
The prospect of losing at home in 2011 and being labeled WC chokers was just too much to bear.
Of this we have video evidence, do you have any video evidence of the ABs being food poisoned in 1995? No one can play a game of rugby with genuine food poisoning.
Spot on Warren and Graham! Kerry is surely from another myopic dimension. He just sounds very sore about something. What cannot be taken away from the Boks is that we won the cup on our first attempt. And while apartheid was abhorrent, Kerry is lucky that NZ could win a world cup without us before 1995. And another achievement, we are the only team to have won in Japan. Oh, and how I love stats, and won the very first tournament held in Japan too, a stat that will be time immemorial. NZ dominance is over Kerry, deal with it. As with most conspiracy theorists, why must there always be a conspiracy when you're on the wrong side of a score. We have learned to be pragmatic, moan a little bit, forget, and move on to the next game. Kerry, come and visit and enjoy our country sometime. See how quick and easy we forget! And you can smoke a joint here too, we won't tell.
You sound like someone who thinks that Covid was spread via 5G and that the moon landing was staged… Is your membership to the flat earth society still up to date?
Go and pray for forgiveness for obliterating indigenous populations which was about as long ago as 1995. Strange you don’t see South Africans going on and on about Bryce Lawrence who handed a desperate shaky isles their desperately needed cup by beating a dreadfully poor France by one point. Oh your memory doesn’t re call what Vtyce himself admitted was a monumental mistake allowing Hooper to play off sides all game “I froze” was Bryce’s own words. Convenient for a NZ ref taking out the opposition so a very mediocre AB’s with their fourth choice fly half could finally break their cup drought with the game of rugby teetering in NZ.
Deliberate lying! More like 🤣😂 AB players Know they got beaten ask Mehrtens any of the respected ones.
Your typical one eyed kiwi rant with no substance whatsoever.
You guys still can't let that go can you. It's the only thing you can hold onto because you simply lost. Conspiracy theories don't win world cups but glad the Boks live rent free in the kiwis heads :)
I truly think Foster mis-worded his own comment which has now created this whole other discussion about ball in play. Its multi layered
This is world cup is really show casing everyone’s different style of play
It’s no secret the All Blacks love attacking rugby they want to create fatigue in the game
My interpretation is not many other side’s seem like they want to play they would rather kick the ball, tackle and go to a set piece which is fine if that’s there style and it works for them (this is coined or defined as Negative Rugby) This is where opportunities are created.
Then yes there’s the packing down for scrums, setting up for lineouts etc people paying for 80mins of Rugby and only getting 27mins of action on a cold plastic seat and 4 Mexican waves. All of which are all part of the game we grew up loving. we just need balance.
Maybe look at how many reserves we carry
Yes, it’s the laws that are the problem. It’s not that a team uses a strength to gain a penalty and set for an attacking play, it’s that the game allows them to set for another penalty, rinse and repeat until the ref goes to a card and the contest is over.
There are simply too many situations where players are penalised for not being good enough. Two goes at a rolling maul, second go at it tries to twist to the sideline and buckles a defender, or someone comes in to defend and has to join onto an attacking player. Both are set to the bin. Team gets a scrum penalty, chooses to set for another scrum. Guy pops or squeezed under the pressure of his locks and the opposition, or bind slips and has to put his hands on the ground to keep it up until he can remind. Sorry, ref, and everyone in the stands has had enough with the dozens of possible infringements that could happen, you’re going to the bin. Which front rower was it that caused the collapse? Who cares just make an infringement on which one your e showing the card and call it a day.
The set piece is there to contest the ball and not just simply let them roll it back under their feet. Send a guy off, even penalise him, because his opponent was able to outsmart him? No, that’s not supposed to be the game.
Of the 27 minutes ball in play, the IRL SA match had 10 minutes of “ball up jumper”.
I think to combo of tight play with expansive play is the way to go. Fozzie has it ready for the QF.
Hmmm i’m sure other data had it at 27mins for the SA/Ireland game. 2mins is a bit different to 5min.
Stop watching the clock. Watch the fascination of two evenly matched teams battling for possession which is what rugby is about rather than possession guaranteed “OK it’s your turn -league or even better basketball if you want non stop action which is much more exciting than watching the AB run through a tackle less side.
Was Foster actually remembering the opening game of France v New Zealand that had 27 min?
Love Erasmus! Thank you for sharing. He’s got that honesty you don’t see in some other eccentric coachs. Not sure he’s analyzed in the clock too well however. Does he appreciate that a high try scoring game loses a lot of time, and therefor ball-in-play, in conversions?
Maybe he’s made that his actual point somewhere, that combative contests actually offer more ‘rugby’ than open games with lots of try’s?
I also really have to question whether he was being cheeky with which twitter post (maybe his wifes account?) he chose to reply to, or does Erasmus also not understand the point Foster was making? Obviously (Foster made an exaggerated point) a 10-15 try fest game is not going to be interesting if one team scores all the try’s. Foster was pointing out that Italy’s intention to score, doing so with two lovely tries, was what enabled the form of running rugby where try’s could easily have been shared between the two teams, if they were more evenly matched. Would you rather watch a 53 to 47 game than a single try each game?
But then the most entertaining game to watch if you want uninterrupted action is basketball. I love basketball and watch it often but I watch rugby for another reason - a fair contest for the possession of the ball and Foster’s logic is skewed because if two evenly matched teams are battling for possession you are going to get a low scoring game. What Foster wants is guaranteed possession ergo league. Your turn OK my turn - a poor version of basket ball.
53 to 47..sounds like Netball..
I’d rather watch a contest than a flogging mate. I’m a Kiwi and have supported the AB'S gor 55yrs. I’d rather have Rassie as our coach instead of Foster.
Rassie is a very savvy coach and tactician. The Boks aren't just crash and smash. They have excellent backs equal to or better than ours.
Look at the difference in metres made. “Ball in Play’ is telling stat - what you do with that ball tells us so much. For the sake of Rugby I really hope SA are home in a week.
And it probably helps when the entire opposition team comes down with a well-documented case of ‘mysterious food-poisoning’ - which I’m sure was completely ‘accidental’.
Why don’t you talk about the obliteration of the indigenous populations of the dhaky isles. I’m sure it was accidental and just about as old as 1995.
I can understand that sentiment. After/during COVID SA had some really dire games of rugby, and won. They were obviously in a tough spot at the time, yet despite those performances they still mixed in games were they were fairly expansive and looked much better. They often lost those RC games however. I like the balance they are finding now and that they can play rugby like anybody.
So whos knocking out England next week Jmann? Is that gonig to be Fiji again?
Yip. That is the only way we can win. For sure. No doubt. Absolutely. Fair dinkum. Too right mate.
2007 & 2019….I reckon it's only you and me that knows what really happened there….of course!!!! another conspiracy.
Cheers mate. Your comments always bring me a good chuckle. G'nite