For the past few years, Rassie Erasmus has been an active user of social media, which is unusual for someone in his position.
His antics on X, then known as Twitter, have, on the other hand, also resulted in significant problems, such as his past criticism of matchday officials.
On the eve of the Springboks’ World Cup semifinal matchup with England, Rassie Erasmus once more found himself trending on X after acting strangely in his interaction with a well-known “Twitter troll.”
Ben Smith, who is a journalist known for baiting South Africans with criticism or sarcasm, had suggested that there are so many Springbok players competing overseas – as well as South African domestic franchises playing in northern hemisphere competitions – that the Bok team should actually be regarded as a ‘northern hemisphere’ team.
With a meme of a sheep grazing in response, Erasmus said, “At least we’re all South African.” The male journalist was then later referred to as “her” before he was publically ostracized.
The tweet has since been deleted, despite Erasmus’ later apology that he had made a “typo” in response to criticism that it was misogynistic. However, not before numerous people urged the rugby director to once again avoid Twitter.
LISTEN TO SOME OF THE COMMENTS MADE IN RESPONSE TO RASSIE ERASMUS BELOW:
Rassie denies Springboks used ‘illegal’ subs strategy
The Springboks have emphatically refuted any suggestion that they may have used Head Injury Assessment (HIA) protocols to rest players.
Rassie Erasmus during a Springbok training session. Photo by AFP
After securing a stunning victory over France on Sunday, the Springboks are just a few days away from the Rugby World Cup semifinals.
In the second half, it was remarkable that Pieter-Steph du Toit, Duane Vermeulen, and Bongi Mbonambi all left the field for HIAs at various points but ultimately all passed the rigorous examinations.
THE SPRINGBOKS HAVE RESPONDED TO ANY QUESTIONS
Some critics have conjectured that the HIAs may have been utilized to rotate and rest players, but Rassie Erasmus, director of rugby for the Bok, was having none of it.
“No I think that would be totally wrong. No,” Erasmus stated. “We really care about our players, and rightly so. I think it was (William) Servat, the French forwards coach, who said he hoped the medical team and the HIA people are ready, because there’s going to be a lot of bumps and bruises,” he recalled.
“You could see when Pieter Steph made a head contact, we had to do an HIA there. It was straight head-to-head, and then the same, I think Duane Vermeulen was actually called by the match-day doctor.
“Bongi got a bad knock against his head. And, yes, for us to take those players off – and you know, the chance is always there that they might not pass the HIA – luckily for us, all of them passed their HIAs.
“I don’t think there’s anything else to discuss about it.”
