Rassie Erasmus has found himself at the centre of a unique controversy following accusations the South Africa director has been using a ‘burner account’ on Twitter to express his views.
The Springboks suffered a series-opening 22-17 defeat to the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town on Saturday, after which Erasmus—at first—appeared accepting of the result.
The former Munster coach replied to a Lions tweet outlining the scoreline on Saturday and applauded: “No excuses this side!! You [the Lions] are far away from home, families and going through same tough covid protocols like we do!! Congrats and well deserved!!!”
But Erasmus, 48, has since attracted more attention for his interactions with an account called ‘Jaco Johan’, which fans now suspect he himself has been operating.
The Boks director first retweeted a video shared by ‘Jaco Johan’ following the Lions’ 17-13 defeat to South Africa ‘A’ in mid-July, which highlighted several questionable tackles from the tourists.
But Erasmus had more interactions with the account—which has gained more than 1,000 followers over the weekend—following his side’s Test loss at Cape Town Stadium.
The hosts had two tries disallowed following several drawn-out TMO decisions, while there were suggestions that Hamish Watson was lucky to escape a sin bin.
After Erasmus was magnanimous via his official Twitter account, he then replied to ‘Jaco Johan’, who was more begrudging of the result and wrote: “Respect your attitude in defeat, but there were some questionable calls. I'll highlight a few.”
The account—which features no profile picture—shared another video highlighting more debatable calls from the first Test, to which Erasmus replied: “Thanks. This is rugby - sometimes calls go for you and other times they dont (sic).”
Analyst Squidge Rugby pointed out that the account was created in April 2016, around the same time Erasmus was first appointed Munster coach.
He also highlighted ‘Jaco’ could be short for Jacques—referring to South Africa coach and long-time Erasmus colleague, Nienaber—while ‘Johan’ is Erasmus’ real first name.
Those could be attributed as coincidences, but there’s other evidence to suggest the two social media accounts may be linked.
After replying to ‘Jaco Johan’ personally, Erasmus tweeted another video pointing out a potential foul on South Africa winger Cheslin Kolbe, which went unpunished at the time:
The video features the same style of editing in that shared by the suspicious account, down to the yellow circles used to spot infringements.
The high-quality footage and absence of TV graphics also suggests it came from a broadcast feed, to which only certain personnel would have access.
Fans reacted comically to accusations that the coach of the reigning Rugby World Cup champions was using a fake account to converse with himself:
If the suspicions are accurate, the burner account gives Erasmus greater range to express his views publicly without fear of repercussions from World Rugby authorities.
Erasmus was recently involved in a war of words with Lions coach Warren Gatland, who raised concerns about the South Africa director donning a water boy bib to deliver instructions on the pitch.
Despite those comments, Erasmus carried on the practice during the first Test in Cape Town, not that it helped the hosts deliver a victorious result.
The Lions will have bigger things on their mind as they look to seal the series with another win this Saturday—in fact, they may hope the leader of the opposition spends as much time on Twitter as possible.
