Cricketers can play for days on end, footballers every few nights, but rugby players step on to the international stage for just 80 minutes per week. The result is a drawn-out vacuum in the buildup and if it’s not a “war of words” unfolding, it tends to be head coaches ramming home their points to the referee. We lap it up, of course we do as we wait for Saturday to come, and though the pre-match sparring between South Africa and New Zealand is tedious to some, it is all part of the fun to others.
This week in Johannesburg has been lively without crossing the line into poisonous. Suffice it to say that the referee Matt Carley is in for one hell of an afternoon in Saturday’s series opener at Ellis Park but the very fact that both Rassie Erasmus and Dave Rennie have stepped on to the offensive demonstrates the magnitude of the coming four-Test series. It promises to be a barn-burner.
The All Blacks’ position is the more straightforward of the two. They want to play at speed, and Rennie and his assistant Tana Umaga have made that clear in public appearances this week in a not-so-subtle attempt to put pressure on Carley. Rennie’s replacements bench – sacrificing a back-up lock for two loose forwards in Peter Lakai and Anton Segner – only underlines the intention to play at a tempo for 80 minutes that they believe the Springboks cannot live with.
That South Africa came over the top in response is no surprise – Erasmus relishes the chance to fill the vacuum – with the former referee turned adviser Jaco Peyper up first, insisting the Springboks are anything but slow, before the assistant coach Felix Jones, who has a reputation for forensic analysis, detailed how New Zealand had been guilty of “tucking shoulders” and “pulling, lifting of legs” in rucks and mauls during tour matches against the South African provinces. The use of the word “brutal” felt deliberate, before he hammered home his point by highlighting that World Rugby’s priority is safety. Erasmus got in on the act, too, accusing New Zealand of “preaching”, which is not entirely wide of the mark.
On the face of it, this is simply both sides brazenly attempting to eke out an advantage, though Carley is the one who bears the brunt. Penalise the Springboks’ lumbering forwards for slowing the ball down too much and he will be pilloried in South Africa. Deny the All Blacks the quick ball they insist upon as if their birthright and he will be hammered in New Zealand.
To view things through that lens, however, is to buy into the narrative that has formed, pitching roundheads against cavaliers. It ignores the fact that New Zealand’s set piece is perennially underrated and, while South Africa’s forward muscle will inevitably have a major bearing on the series, with Tony Brown running the attack, the Springboks are able to win Test matches in any manner of ways. What’s more, while South Africa’s return of fire was no surprise, the sheer weight of the volley was, which means one of two things.
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