SA Rugby has been put between a rock and hard place with the two-match ban issued to its director of rugby Rassie Erasmus by governing body World Rugby.
Erasmus will miss Saturday’s Test against Italy in Genoa and next week’s game against England at Twickenham. The ban is Erasmus’s second from World Rugby in the space of a year after last year’s sanction.
It follows Erasmus’s continued use of Twitter to highlight issues in match officiating on his side’s European tour.
The ban also stretched to engagement with media and social media in relation to match officials, meaning Erasmus can’t tweet about refereeing decisions for the Boks’ season-ending fixtures.
SA Rugby President Mark Alexander says they were wrapping their heads around the news.
“SA Rugby has seen the statement and they’re still digesting it,” Alexander said.
Erasmus was also approached for comment but was not available to do so, in line with the rules of the new ban.
Like myself the referee of the French test & his family have received threats & abuse. Apparently it’s partly due to my tweets which is totally unfounded.Tweets were not aimed at the officials,but to our 🇿🇦fans on what we should do better. Have a go at me not the ref!! Tweets👇🏿 pic.twitter.com/XYnrtjl091
— Rassie Erasmus (@RassieRugby) November 17, 2022
Erasmus’s battle with World Rugby, fresh after last year’s ban for the leaked Nic Berry video that zoomed in on the Australian referee’s mistakes in the first British & Irish Lions Test on 24 July last year, started on 6 November, the day after the 19-16 defeat against Ireland in Dublin where he highlighted an officiating inconsistency from match official Nika Amashukeli.
Erasmus then ratcheted it up after last week’s memorable 30-26 loss to France in Marseille where in a series of tweets, he highlighted Wayne Barnes’s mistakes in the game.
The game also contained a controversial moment where Sipili Falatea’s 74th-minute try looked to have contained an element of illegality through double movement, but the TV screens at the Stade Velodrome stopped functioning, while Barnes lost contact with his Television Match Official Brian MacNeice.
In an interview with RugbyRama , World Rugby head of match officials Joel Jutge, a former Test referee, seemed to take exception to Erasmus’s actions.
Jutge, who retired from officiating in 2009, said Erasmus’s behaviour was regretful and didn’t take into account his actions that led to his first ban last year.
“He chose this channel of communication several months ago. He had more or less done the same thing during the last British Lions tour in South Africa (summer 2021) and closer to us, after the recent defeat of the Springboks in Ireland (19-16),” Jutge told RugbyRama.
“We regret this behavior because we, at World Rugby, have set up a system of communication and exchanges with the coaches which works rather well.
“We are therefore very disappointed that he is using social networks to voice his reservations about the refereeing of this or that match. It’s counterproductive and totally inappropriate.”
Jutge told the French publication that match officials are attacked by Erasmus’s tweets and that he had met Barnes after Saturday’s Test.
“All referees are affected by these attacks on referees in general and Wayne Barnes last weekend,” Jutge told the publication.
“By doing so, Erasmus opens the door to violent behavior and behind it, entire families are insulted and affected.
“It is extremely dangerous, but some people think that if the South African coach talks about a referee like that, they have the right to do it too.
“There are things that, in my opinion, must be settled internally. These sensitive subjects cannot end up in the public square.”
Saturday’s Test at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris kicks off at 15:00 (SA time).
News24
