Erasmus tweets promise following criticism from Springboks legend

Rassie Erasmus has been busy on Twitter again, this time reacting to online criticism from a former Springboks back-rower about South Africa’s attack despite last Saturday’s Rugby Championship win over the Wallabies in Sydney. Jacques Nienaber’s team scored four tries in the 24-8 win that was their first victory away to Australia in nine years, but it still didn’t satisfy one ex-Test forward who voiced his dissatisfaction on social media.

Rob Louw, a flanker who played 19 times for the Springboks in the early 1980s, tweeted: “Who is in charge of our @Springboks attack? Why are we making so many basic attack errors? We should have won that game yesterday by 40 or more!!! Something is not right????”

The message soon produced a response from Erasmus, the South African director of rugby who was head coach when the 2019 World Cup was won in Japan. “Hi Rob. Thanks for all the support and backing the Boks.

“All five coaches help out in all departments, we can’t even give the rain as an excuse for only scoring four tries (All Blacks showed us that). We will work hard to get better at it! Lekka.”

The message from Erasmus was accompanied by a picture of the current Rugby Championship standings and it had the ten tries scored by the Springboks circled in red. This ten-try tally after four rounds of matches is level with Argentina, one less than the Wallabies and four fewer than the All Blacks’ 14.

The tweet from Erasmus was picked up by Louw, who quit union in 1985 for a shot at rugby league in England. “@RassieRugby thought the try that our flank scored was outstanding with Marx running a great line very similar to what we used to run at Wigan, then it was great hands and an offload by Wiese! Thought the great pass from @Doogz for Mapimps try was! People think he can't pass!

“Just so many simple five on two or three overlaps aren't being run. I know we wanted to keep them in the corners with kicks but simple overlaps can't go begging with the RWC around the corner,” he added. Erasmus responded with a thumbs-up emoji to Louw and there the Twitter exchange ended.