Rassie Erasmus has insisted that his post-match thumbs-up jibe wasn’t directed at Irish fans after the Springboks’ 24-13 win in Dublin.

Saturday was the first time that South Africa have won at Aviva Stadium since 2012, and they came into their latest Autumn Nations Series fixture having beaten the Irish in just one of the four recent encounters that Erasmus has been involved in.

The Boks were beaten in Dublin in 2022 and again in Paris at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. They managed to strike back in Pretoria in 2024, but that winning feeling didn’t last as Ireland triumphed in Durban the following weekend.

All the while, a vociferous rivalry has developed between the two nations. But Erasmus was adamant there was no malice in his post-match gesture that was caught on TV shortly after Matthew Carley’s final whistle.

Negativity

It was footage that generated a lot of negativity on social media, but the coach insisted it wasn’t a mocking of the home supporters.

“There were South Africans sitting in front of us saying, ‘Thank you’,” insisted the South African head coach. “The coaches’ box, I remember when I coached Munster here, the box is soundproof, you can’t really get the vibe of what is going on. On the field, you get it through the referee’s mic more or less.

“This is a special stadium. The crowd is special. They have got manners when the kicker kicks. I love the way pre-match of the military band; I am glad they have RG (Snyman) a bit of a welcoming when he ran onto the field.

“It [his coaches box gesture] was a thank you to our people, and we have respect for the way Irish people support their team because it was 19 games on the trot that they have won here (until last year), so for our guys, thank you for the support.

“The euro versus the rand is not too strong, and for our people still to come and you could hear them, it was just a thank you.”

Erasmus arrived at his post-game media briefing sipping on a celebratory bottle of beer. “It’s nice. Any beer is nice after a win like this against a quality team like Ireland, who has totally dominated us since we have been in the group together.

“So we know if you take the five games, there is still three-two up against us so we won’t get carried away with this. But yeah, the beer is a little bit sweeter, and we are just thankful that we could manage to beat them here.

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“It’s been a long season for our guys. I know a lot of the guys must go to Japan and URC games and so on. And I also know the whole Leinster team, there were only two not starting that game from Leinster, they also have to go into URC, so it will work both ways.

“But we are proud after a long season to grind through a win against a team like them at home for the first time in 13 or 14 years, so it [the beer] tastes okay.”

The four tries to one victory certainly wasn’t without its drama. The Springboks melted Ireland at the scrum with a dominance that was rewarded with two home props sin-binned and the awarding of a penalty try.

Those yellow cards were just two of the four handed out to the Irish, along with a 20-minute red card brandished to James Ryan for his vicious-looking clear-out on Malcolm Marx. That incident cost the home team the try they scored from the next phase through Tadgh Beirne.

James Ryan’s red

At one stage, the cards meant the match became 12 Irish players against 15 South Africans, and it was only in the 78th minute when the visitors finally lost a man to the bin, seeing out their deserved win with 14 players.

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It was a madcap victory in keeping with the demands of a busy week that included the Springboks having to deal with a couple of disciplinary hearings. “The whole week was crazy for us, and then the game was very physical,” reflected Erasmus.

“It was a 20-minute red card that was given (to Ireland), which I thought was the right call. The referee or whatever the tough judges said, ‘Always illegal’, which I thought ‘always illegal’ is a very weird word. From when does always illegal start and when does it end?

“There is something to clear up there, but I thought it was the right call so that other player could come back into the field.

“I do think we were dominant in the scrums. I am not saying who should have got a yellow card and who not, but we have been part of quite a few games that was like this where we had to grind it out with 14 men.

“That was a totally different challenge here. I thought we were dominant for most parts of the game but just couldn’t kill it when we were inside the 22.

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“It was hectic, it was difficult to manage, it was difficult sometimes to understand at times who is off and who is on and who comes back and who has got a HIA and who is injured, but that is Test match rugby at the highest level and you have to understand and manage those kinds of things.”

There was no element of smugness in Erasmus’ post-match take, as he was complimentary of the challenge Ireland provided other than at scrum time. “Ireland were just as physical,” he reckoned.

“To keep us out after a dominant scrum, the amount of tackles they made and the turnovers they made inside their 22, it was physical and I don’t think they came out second best on the physicality. If they scored in that last four minutes, then it was a kick-off and the match was back on.

“We were dominant in the scrums but all over the game there was dominance for them in the air, in the scraps on the ground, at the breakdown, so certainly not a perfect performance.

“All you guys [the media] asked all week if there was a monkey on our back that we have to get off and is there revenge? It’s not revenge. When you play a team like this, you just want to fix something and try and beat them here.

“We feel we were dominant in the scrums but all over the game, we weren’t that dominant. We took the scrums because they had gone down to seven (with Ryan red-carded). We could have taken those three points and extended the lead but because they were down to 14, we stuck in there. To say that we were totally dominant, that is just not true.”

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