Despite being seen and sometimes sold as the greatest rugby rivalry at the moment, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has poured cold water on Ireland being their biggest foe.
The Springboks and Ireland are set to kick off their two-match Test series this weekend, with the first clash at Loftus Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday at 17:00.
A lot of drama has preceded the series and drew some interesting comments from players and legends of the game to make it a fiery contest.
Former Wales skipper Sam Warburton said the Irish were the best rugby side in the world after they claimed another Six Nations title and that earned him some stinging comments from Boks legend Victor Matfield and former assistant coach Swys de Bruin.
“I don’t think he has (Warburton) made a final, no, he hasn’t made a World Cup final,” Matfield said on SuperSport’s Final Whistle show.
“He hasn’t made a semi-final of a World Cup. Now you want to tell everyone that Ireland, who hasn’t made a semi-final in a World Cup, is the best team in the world when South Africa has won back-to-back. He must live in his own world.”
De Bruin added: “Sam is a great player, but he can’t tie Victor’s shoelaces when it comes to experience and say what he wants to say.”
Ex-Irish star Simon Zebo was also reported to have said that Erasmus “hates Irish, he really, really doesn’t like us” and “it drips feed into the players” during a podcast interview.
The fact that the back-to-back world champions are ranked number one and Ireland in second adds another twist to the clash as a victory for the Irish will take them to the world’s summit.
However, Erasmus, a king of mind games, said the rivalry between the two nations only existed in media.
“I think the rivalry is more from the media side and maybe sometimes they don’t understand hundred per cent of our South African sense of humour or how we try to find something funny in many things, even when it’s going bad,” Erasmus said.
“Sometimes it gets quoted out of context, I mean the Simon Zebo thing for example, he phoned me and said he was on a podcast, having a few beers and he said this, I know I’m repeating myself but just to take the last part, ‘let’s spice it up.’
“Also, that South African humour saying it back to Simon,” Erasmus said.
“Yes, they are number two in the world, and they have beaten us the last time, but we don’t see ourselves as the underdogs and I don’t think they see themselves as the underdogs.
“I think we will see two teams on Saturday that are very desperate to perform for their countries,” he said.
Ireland head into the clash having beaten the Boks in their last three meetings including the 13-8 win in the World Cup pool stages last year.
The last time SA beat Ireland was in 2016 in Geberha to claim a 2-1 in the three-matches Test Series in Mzansi.
Despite that, Boks don’t feel they have a point to prove against their visitors.
“I think, probably from their side they have unfinished business to try and get number one. We don’t talk like that,” Erasmus said.
“We analyse players, check on how they performed in the URC, and the European cups, pick out teams accordingly to see what players can do the job for us on Saturday and we train really hard.
“We try to stay in our reality and our reality is that we are playing at home against the team that has beaten us. All the games were really close. They deserved all of those games, but it’s not that we have a score to settle.
“I mean I’d rather take two World Cups and British and Irish Lions Series win rather than three losses. But we never go out to lose. We didn’t pick up this team to try and lose.”
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus on the rivalry between South Africa 🇿🇦 and Ireland 🇮🇪.
— Mahlatse Mphahlele (@BraMahlatse) July 2, 2024
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