Lions need to regroup fast... Rassie rage has ripped up script
RASSIE ERASMUS nearly broke the internet when he released his infamous dissection of last week’s first Test defeat on Thursday.
It was box-office stuff.
Some people thought Rassie should have been awarded a ‘Razzie’, one of the ‘Golden Raspberry’ awards handed out around Oscar time for the worst movies of the year.
Instead, last night he was clearing his throat for his acceptance speech, in his dinner suit, after this win.
It turns out Erasmus, the South African director of rugby, is a sporting genius after all, and not someone who had become troubled because of the pressure of a potentially series-losing Test match.
In fact, Erasmus’s antics were a major factor in the Boks levelling matters, and they have the momentum going into next week’s deciding Test in Cape Town.
It all adds up to the Lions being forced to play the ‘get out of jail’ card that boss Warren Gatland (below, left) warned them against banking on earlier this week.
Erasmus (below, right) didn’t come up with any revolutionary tactics.
Martin Johnson always said that if Plan A did not work for South Africa, they reverted to Plan A.
And that is what they did here. The Boks’ staples of scrum and physicality were on the menu again – they were just done better than they were last weekend by the hosts.
But Erasmus can take credit for being the story this week.
The Springbok players who lost 22-17 in the first Test were not talked about in the lead-up – this was the Rassie Show and it proved to be an Oscar-winning performance.
Erasmus has polarised opinion in recent days.
Some sides thought he was a genius, deflecting the pressure from his players, some thought he was bringing the game into disrepute, some thought he was plain bonkers.
He was not carrying water bottles on camera, he was loaded up with Molotov cocktails and lobbed them all over the shop. But in his 63-minute video, highlighting about 26 incidents, he threw bombs everywhere – referee Nic Berry, World Rugby, the Lions... they all had to have it.
Yesterday’s ref Ben O’Keefe, by luck an ophthalmologist in another life, must have woken up in a cold sweat yesterday morning.
On Friday Siya Kolisi had asserted that Berry had not given him as much ‘respect’ in the first Test as he showed Alun Wyn Jones.
The Boks assistant boss, Mzwandile Stick, said the Lions had destroyed the dignity of the series, and Rugby Australia waded in defending Berry, who is a fair-dinkum Aussie.
Meanwhile World Rugby continued to stuff their hands in their pockets and look at the ground and do nothing – apart from issue a banal statement saying they would look at it through proper channels and all the usual guff.
For what it is worth, Erasmus did have some decent points to make, but if the Lions had produced their own hour-plus epic they would have had too.
Erasmus did not highlight the ineffectiveness of his bench, the Boks lame second-half performance or the fact they had the best winger in the world, Cheslin Kolbe, stuck on the flanks and starved of the ball.
As it turned out O’Keefe got most of the decisions right yesterday, although Gatland might want to produce a ranting video monologue of his own over the try that was
awarded to Lukhanyo Am that broke the Lions.
But when the fists were flying and the game
threatened to degenerate into a free-for-all in the first half the referee stamped on it quickly.
He appeared to treat both captains, Wyn Jones and Kolisi, with equal amounts of respect.
Erasmus was on the touchline, back in his controversial supporting role as a water-carrier, ferrying instructions on to the pitch – but his job was already done.
He might have had a walk-on part on match day, but he was the star of the show this week. Don’t bet against a sequel.