Jason Ryan reacts to Boks’ late changes and Rassie’s ‘friendly fire’ outburst

men’s rugby

test matches

The set-piece battle has served as a highly contested element throughout the Greatest Rivalry tour, and Saturday night’s encounter in Cape Town delivered another fascinating chapter.

The match kicked off with an unexpected tactical shift by Rassie Erasmus, who made a late decision to exchange his starting front-row forwards with his substitutes. Erasmus subsequently justified this alteration by pointing to the weather, noting the environment was far less damp than initially predicted.

Following the final whistle, Erasmus voiced his displeasure regarding comments from All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie, who had raised alarms about the Springboks’ scrummaging methods, alleging that the home side was shifting sideways late during the engagement to put extra pressure on New Zealand’s tighthead props.

Erasmus claimed that never before in his career had he faced such allegations of illegal scrummaging, dismissing the claims as complete rubbish and suggesting that the New Zealand camp was simply complaining about the officiating.

All Blacks forward coach Jason Ryan dismissed the significance of Erasmus’ reaction when questioned by reporters on Sunday.

“It’s just some banter between rivals, really. A lot of intriguing remarks have surfaced in the press, but that comes with the territory of international rugby, and it’s part of the theater, I suppose,” he remarked.

“However, our main task is to focus on areas of improvement for the upcoming week, which is crucial. Back-to-back matches are notoriously tougher. The teams understand each other better by then, and they likely exposed a few areas in our play to secure the victory.”

During his post-game media session, Rennie maintained that the Springboks’ last-minute line-up changes did not disrupt the New Zealand game plan. Ryan echoed this, noting that such adjustments were not entirely surprising.

“Historically, whenever we face the Springboks, even if they name a squad early on, there are frequently late adjustments before kickoff. Consequently, our preparation must account for various scenarios so the players are ready for whoever takes the field.

“For instance, with their front row, they utilized the identical personnel but simply swapped the starters and the finishers. We had formulated plans for both setups and their respective dynamics. Ultimately, how they choose to manage their squad is entirely their decision.”

During the match, the home crowd erupted into their well-known adaptation of the Cranberries’ classic song ‘Zombie’, belting out the lyrics “he’s in your head” as a nod to Erasmus’ perceived psychological tactics.

Ryan laughed off the query following the match: “Absolutely not, he isn’t occupying my thoughts. My sole focus is on my own forwards.”

Being the longest-tenured coach on the New Zealand staff through multiple leadership transitions, Ryan feels highly capable of remaining focused on the ultimate objective of winning the series and understanding his role in achieving it.

“We will focus on the variables within our control. In my view, our scrumming performance last night was excellent. We faced an unusually high number of scrums—about 15 on our own put-in, a figure we haven’t seen in over half a decade—and playing at high altitude made it a demanding test. For a period, it felt like a continuous training drill. Nonetheless, the tweaks we implemented worked, and I believe both sets of front rows performed exceptionally well.

“Our strategy this week is simply to focus inward. We need to block out external factors like the officials and our opponents, and purely concentrate on how we can elevate our own game.”

The assistant coach suggested there could be squad rotations to maintain high energy levels across the four-match series, with front-rower Ethan de Groot and second-rower Josh Lord potentially in line for a return after being sidelined in Cape Town due to concussion protocols.

“He is scheduled for his final concussion assessment, and we also need to evaluate his knee’s medial ligament to gauge his fitness, but we remain optimistic. Both he and Josh have progressed nicely through their head injury recovery protocols towards the end of the week.”