PARIS (AP) — One of the surprises of the Rugby World Cup pool stage was the only team not to concede a yellow or red card: South Africa.
The defending champion Springboks were also one of the least penalized — 34, which put them among the top six teams. The least penalized was France, whom the Springboks face in the quarterfinals on Sunday at Stade de France.
Asked on Tuesday about their relationship with referees, South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said, “The first word is respect.”
He wasn't kidding.
Not long ago, Erasmus was enemy No. 1 among referees for a scathing hour-long video critique of the match officials in the first test against the 2021 British and Irish Lions. The gist of the video was right. The public delivery of it wasn't.
World Rugby sanctioned Erasmus with a nearly year-long matchday ban. Just weeks later last November, he was handed a two-game ban from match days and social media for criticizing the refs again after losses in Ireland and France.
He's been out of trouble since then. Erasmus tried to persuade retired refereeing great Nigel Owens last March to join the squad as a law and strategy consultant like France did with retired official Jerome Garces.
Owens declined, but their conversation helped Erasmus and South Africa learn how better to see the refs' point of view, and improve communication. It hasn't been perfect. The Springboks received yellow cards in four consecutive tests preceding the Rugby World Cup. But they have been squeaky clean during the tournament.
On Tuesday, Erasmus admitted to being wrong in the past.
“We got it wrong,” he said, "especially when we had the year off with COVID and we went into the Lions series. The level of communication was really tough. When we played our 100th game against New Zealand we were in a bubble in Australia, World Rugby couldn't be there, and the Lions series they couldn't be there because of COVID. So it was tough to get better communication and I guess on both sides it led to frustration.
"Last year I had a phone call with Nigel Owens and I said, ‘We really want to get this right, we don’t want people not to like us.' What we learned from that conversation is that no matter if we are right, the respect you show to the referee you will get back from that referee, even if he makes mistakes or you make mistakes.
“We had to change our game to make it easier for referees. We had to earn the respect back and I think it is showing at this stage that it works both ways.”
Ahead of their quarterfinal, Erasmus expected to face France captain Antoine Dupont, who suffered a broken cheekbone three weeks ago but was cleared on Monday for full contact training.
“A lack of fitness won't be a problem with him,” Erasmus said. "I have actually never seen him sweat on the field, he's so emotionless when he plays. He always look so in control, obviously him being the captain.
“I broke my jaw three times and you can actually get leaner because you can't eat (as well). The next thing is you can run. He is definitely a guy who is not afraid to tackle, he's a guy whose kicking and passing is still (good). I have no doubt he will play and will be a big challenge for us to try and contain.”
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