It would be great if the on-field performances of the Springboks and All Blacks took centre stage for the remainder of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, according to Nick Mallett.
The scrum has become a flashpoint, with Dave Rennie calling out the Boks’ tactics before last week’s Test in Cape Town, then again afterwards. Rassie Erasmus fired back post-match, denying his pack walks around at scrum time and accusing New Zealand of shaping the narrative through the media.
Speaking on the Talking Boks podcast, Mallett weighed in on the to and fro hogging the headlines, and not what’s going on the white lines.
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“It would be a disappointment if the sort of off-the-cuff [comments overshadow the series],” the former Bok coach said. “Every coach is trying to get a little advantage somewhere. That’s just part and parcel of coaching.
“You see a strength in the opposition and you try to negate it. You try and use everything, not only through coaching but also through chatting about, ‘Is it legal? How do they manage to get [that advantage]?’ Every coach does it.”
He believes there’s admiration between the teams but wants the rugby to dominate the conversation, with the four-Test series 1-1 ahead of Saturday’s clash at FNB Stadium.
“I would like to hope that this series will continue to have a lot of respect between both coaching staffs and also the teams,” Mallett said.
“There have been a few flare-ups, but they’re quickly doused. There’s huge physicality, but I do believe there’s respect. I think there’s a lot of respect between Rassie and Dave Rennie as well.
“One wouldn’t like to think that these media conferences could take centre stage in this wonderful series. What I would like is that the players themselves take centre stage in their performances and the differing styles of play,” he added.
“Let’s hope in the next two weeks we’re not talking about the referees, we’re talking about the performances of the players.”
MALLETT: All Blacks ‘lucky’ at scrum time
The ex-Boland Cavaliers, Stade Français and Italy boss also pointed to where the fuss began.
“It started right at the beginning of the tour, where they [New Zealand] said that South African teams like to walk from set-piece to set-piece. We slow the game down to our pace,” Mallett said.
“[All Blacks assistant coach] Tana Umaga mentioned it, as well as Dave Rennie. It didn’t start with South Africa.”
ALSO: Rassie’s not in my head – All Blacks forwards coach
Photo: Esa Alexander/Reuters
The post Rassie, Rennie ‘off-the-cuff’ jibes a distraction appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
It would be great if the on-field performances of the Springboks and All Blacks took centre stage for the remainder of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, according to Nick Mallett.
The post Rassie, Rennie ‘off-the-cuff’ jibes a distraction appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
