Watch: Rassie Erasmus video that everybody is talking about

"Good old Rassie even plays the race card."??

WTF?

Kolisi is not ‘respected’ what do you think that’s saying?

Well he wasnt.

Did you see how the ref laughed him off?

Shocking.

Di d you even watch the whole video?

"The man is a genius"

Depends on one's vantage point...

Refs dismiss players all the time if they aren’t making sense…..this is  pathetic stuff, making South Africa look like bad losers. Rassie pandering to what he thinks is his real constituency.

"Depends on one's vantage point..."

Why Moz, is your vantage point in Chicago better than our vantage point anywhere else in the world?

Are you one of those "don't step out of line" kinda guys? Cos in that case, i can see why Rassie's video would offend you.

Kolisi vs Alun Wyn. I know who I'd have more time for. Kolisi has no presence on the field. He looks like a little boy standing next to daddy, listening to him talk to the other big people when he is on the field, especially in the presence of Eben or Thor. 

Traitor? Oh really? 2013, last great attacking Bok side: Saffy Duck, "Themz arez moral loses, themz tries be fake trize coz they ernt be skerd thru da Lamboni". Kolisi is a quota, an atriciously poor player. You, the Englishman, the yappy Pomeranian, are the traitor here. 

Haters hate...never mind his views, both captains should be shown the same respect...perception of bias isn't a good thing at all...good on Rassie for putting pressure on the officials...get the yarpies, nè?

Eben stands behind Kolisi...and Thor too... and the rest of the team...he is the captain for whatever reason, he deserves the respect. Any soldier will tell you that...you look at and respect the rank, not the man...

I respect the man. You have to earn respect or the title is worthless. 

Captain Disco is on the case. The adventures of Josè and Crutch fighting against adversity to make the world a better place 

The way Rassie has taken the attention off the team and players who may not have played well is really quite clever. It's sorta Eddie -ish. 

All the media is now fishing the Rassie angle and not the Boks. Mourinho playbook.

Also o'Keefe, Raynal and Berry  have been put on notice which is one up on Fat Gats trying to influence Jonker.

Wether this works or backfires we'll only know Saturday. 

I don't believe this crap.

Every country has to live with the fact of bad referee decisions.

The Boks lost and that is it.

I don't believe this bullshit from Erasmus.

I state this with some conviction - The rest of the rugby world will have lost all respect for him  What a joke.

Later years Mourinho. 

A smiling Michael Cheika….and we always disliked the way he behaved.

Shark I bet if  you went through that game with a pro Lions stance you could come up with a mirror image video showing the Lions were hard done by….starting with the Amla tackle.

One could take on every one of those incidents.

For example the one where Itoje wrestled the ball from Faf with his knees on the player….a miss right? But just before that you see Mostert fly off his feet onto the Lions side. It was a penalty in any case.

The Willie offside wasn’t an offside….but the Allende pass in the same move was palpably forward.

The incident where the tackled Bok’s knees touched the deck….technically right…..but it happened almost simultaneously with being pulled down. In fact refs often give tacklers a bit of leeway by calling them off the tackle.

……..

I have often felt the Boks have been unfairly reffed….you can almost sense it when a ref is looking to call against a team. There were mistakes going both ways on Saturday, but I never got the sense the ref was blowing against us. I did get the sense that Marius was afraid to make the controversial calls.

But the simple truth is the Lions were the better team….more territory, more possession, more enterprise. Incredibly Cheslin Kolbe never beat one tackle in that test which tells you just how moribund our tactics were.

Hopefully all this controversy gets us in a more risk taking mindset. We could beat these Lions by just playing rugby….no need to whine at the refs.

Rassie's tweet after the 1st test:

10:34 PM · Jul 24, 2021

That's a comment I can respect . . . but now this embarrassment. 

Suddenly "no excuses" becomes an hour long whine about the refs that serves no purpose other than to reinforce the stereotype of South Africans as a nation of crybabies.

Rugby is a hard game to ref. Wrong decisions go both ways. Man up, get over it and stop bleating like a baby.

Zoom out.

Officiating is more a problem in Rugby than in any other sport I watch.

Saturday's game, like so many others,  was decided by what the ref did and didn't "see". 

Yes, it's a flowing game, there's lots going on and humans make mistakes.

However, people make so many irrelevant arguments when defending the state of things. Like, score enough points and the ref won't matter. Or most reffing errors swing in roundabouts and even out over time. 

Strangely, there are two linesman and a TV ref yet they aren't allowed to intervene most of the time even if they spot something. Despite all the tech, we still rely predominantly on one point of view from one fallible source that isn't always in the best position to make a call. Incredible really.

I'm glad Rassie did this and I hope many other coaches and teams follow his lead. 

I saw someone talking about having two refs on the field. Must say, at least superficially, I like this idea. Why n ot try it?

‘Not with the same respect’ Good old Rassie subtly plays the race card.

I got the exact same impression.

Different perceptions of what the real issue was.

Don't think it was a big whine but a GENUINE request for feedback from Nic Berry's interpretions on Sunday...the frustration of not getting feedback. 

Rassie is a good peer to the team and has a rather fatherly protective quality to build the team...that's his nature.

I remember Rassie as a Gauteng Lions captain when his team usurped a final against a strong Sharks side...it was Juba Joubert last game.

I think SA rugby will fall flat on it's face if they make this a storm in a tea cup and if Rassie goes as a result our rugby will go into a downhill spiral. That's my perception.

Heaven help anybody defending South African sides from biased reffing!!! You will have the buffoon turncoat rooitwit after you.

Now we have Moz and org making spectacles of themselves again. Their obsessive hatred of Rassie turned into an inferno because Rassie's huge RWC success made big fools of them. Now they are whining about Rassie's defending the Boks right to a fair deal!!!!

This was excellent work by Rassie done in a very calm manner in very provocative circumstances. When one adds up all the ref blunders the bias was very clear. The cumulative effect is devastating.

Now Moz says Rassie played the race card. What utter nonsense. Its very clear who Berry was listening to and ho he was not. Not about race just a fact.

What Rassie has done with this clip is great. It serves as a warning to crooked refs that they will be exposed. This should be done every time we get a rotten ref. 

A hearty congratulations to Rassie, not only an outstanding coach but a man with a backbone.  

Honest question: why is it okay to not only question, but also to criticize and denigrate coaches, players, management ... but when you dare question an official you're being a "bad sportsman"? Especially taking into account that officials can easily have as much, if not more influence on the outcome of a close game than the first group?

"A hearty congratulations to Rassie, not only an outstanding coach but a man with a backbone" 

Exactly! Something that appears to be in short supply today.

Exactly Pakie...it does not have to be a public circus, but for a professional sport, the laws and officiating are very amateurishly governed. 

Good question Pakie...why cannot you challenge with a reasonable question take deserves a honest and transparent reply.

Whatever the challenge is whether it's rugby or any sport for that matter should be answered or are we expected to just accept with blind compliance those who raise themselves beyond approach. If it is done respectfully requiring honest explanations...what the hell is wrong with that?

Why does WR sometimes see it fit to comment on clear refereeing blunders, but are more often than not quiet about glaring mistakes?

Perhaps, after review, they found a bunch of instances of reffing inconsistency.

Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

Plum you are dealing with one heck of a mampara in poor Rooitwit!