Rassie Erasmus has hit out at Matt Williams following the latter’s latest comments about the Springboks and the 2021 British and Irish Lions series.
In an interview on Off The Ball, Williams slammed the quality of rugby on display during the Test series four years ago with South Africa, and the famous touring team were criticised for their kick-heavy tactics.
The ex-Scotland head coach dubbed the 2021 tour to South Africa an ‘abomination’ and said that it was the worst games of international rugby that he had ever seen.
Matt Williams’ latest rant
He launched his rant when asked whether the British and Irish Lions could be proud of the tour to Australia in 2025 after Andy Farrell’s men won all but one of their games Down Under, falling to a defeat at the hands of the Wallabies in the third Test.
“On field, absolutely,” Williams responded.
“Let’s go back to South Africa, the South African tour was one of the worst tours ever, the worst games of international rugby I think I’ve ever seen.
“The way that both management teams conducted themselves was disgraceful.
“Rassie was running on the field as a water carrier. There was a leaked video criticising referees, ringing people up, and the style of rugby was an abomination.
All they did was kick across the field and chase it. It was, it was not played in a good spirit.
“It was aggressive, I have no problem with it being aggressive but it wasn’t played in the spirit of rugby.
“The Lions are the keepers of the law. They are so special, and they got to keep going, but to suggest that this Lions tour didn’t restore that absolutely tarnished image of what it meant to play Lions rugby is just a fallacy.
They came to Australia, and from the first second, Andy Farrell and his coaching staff made the Lions play a running game. They put the ball in hand, they took chances and made errors, because it’s high-risk rugby but jeez, it was entertaining. It was fabulous to watch.”
He concluded: “The Lions can be very proud that they took that and restored their image on the field.”
Rassie Erasmus claps back
Erasmus has since responded to Williams’ rant on the social media platform X with a short but brutal post.
The Springboks head coach posted a screenshot of a Google search showing Williams’ win rate during his time in charge of Scotland.
“Matt Williams, the rugby union coach, had a 17.65% win percentage during his tenure coaching Scotland. He coached the team in 17 matches, winning only 3 of them. Two of those wins were against Tier 2 nations, Japan and Samoa, according to Wikipedia,” the text in the image read.
Erasmus’ caption on the post read: “Heal Sir Matt.”
Williams is a long-time critic of the Springboks and their tactics as he believes that their Bomb Squad ploy is ‘against the spirit of the game’, ‘discriminates against backs’ and is a player safety risk, this despite World Rugby confirming there is no scientific or medical evidence to support that view.
He went as far as to speculate that Steven Kitshoff’s career-ending neck injury was a result of the tactics and the Springboks’ intensity of scrummaging.
Those comments clearly hit a nerve with Erasmus, who also clapped back on social media.
