Distinguished former Test referee Wayne Barnes has hailed the Springboks for their ability to find loopholes in the game’s laws, despite it sometimes crossing that line.

The official took charge of South Africa on numerous occasions with his last coming in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.

Since Rassie Erasmus joined the Boks set-up in 2018, they have looked at different ways to exploit the law book and it has paid off with successive World Cup titles.

Barnes revealed a few examples of Erasmus’ meticulous approach, including one during the 2021 British and Irish Lions series, where he famously caused a furore by being South Africa’s ‘waterboy.’

Understanding of the laws

“This weekend at Twickenham, we will see a visiting team and a coach who not only know the law book word for word, but they also know the match-day regulations almost as if they were the ones who drafted them,” the former referee wrote in his Telegraph column.

“During the 2021 Lions tour, I was running touch in the opening Springbok game against Georgia. In the first few minutes of the match, I called in an offside penalty from the touchline only to find a large presence looming next to me, telling his team that ‘they are going to be hot on those tonight’.

“The water carrier was not who I would normally expect to be running on the team’s fluids. Often, it would be the team’s strength and conditioning or kicking coach. That evening, however, it was the World Cup-winning coach Rassie Erasmus.

“He and his team had realised that the way the regulations were worded meant he could not only ‘hydrate’ his team but, as Erasmus now had the title of Director of Rugby, he could also be on hand to run on messages and coaching tactics too.”

The Springboks head to Twickenham to take on England on Saturday and Barnes would not be surprised if Erasmus has something unique up his sleeve this weekend.

“I always enjoyed their ingenuity and the way in which they jumped on ambiguities in the law book; it must be the lawyer in me,” he wrote.

“Do not be surprised if this weekend we see another gem from their box of tricks, particularly with some new faces in the South African coaching box.”

Controversies and change in approach

Erasmus has not been afraid of criticising referees in his own inimitable way, often taking to X, formerly Twitter, to put up videos which suggest that officials may have got a key decision wrong.

Barnes has found that out to his cost after he received death threats in the wake of the Springboks’ defeat to France in 2022, a situation which was exacerbated by a social media post from the then-director of rugby.

But it was an incident during the 2021 Lions tour that particularly rankles with many, including the Englishman, when an hour-long video was released which saw the Boks boss severely criticise referee Nic Berry following the first Test.

It landed him in hot water as he was banned by World Rugby for two months, while he also received a two-match suspension for his implied criticism of Barnes in November 2022.

Since then, Erasmus and South Africa have seemingly changed tack and they brought former Test referee Jaco Peyper into their backroom team.

“Jaco was brought in to start to rebuild the relationship between the Springboks and World Rugby’s high-performance referees, following the unprecedented and unacceptable attack by Rassie Erasmus on Nic Berry during the 2021 Lions Test,” Barnes added.

“Though I enjoy inventiveness when it comes to the law book, the decision to go after Nic was calculated, vindictive and undermined the values of rugby. That attack earned him a two-month ban from all rugby activities.

“I learnt quite quickly that when fans see a coach or manager slag off a referee in public, it has a knock-on effect. And when the coach of the world champions publicly decided to criticise me, others felt entitled to join in, the attitude seemed to be, ‘if he can do it, why can’t I?’

“Bringing in Jaco is a smart move by the Springboks, not just to improve relationships but to improve their discipline too, and if you need evidence of referees playing a vital role in a coaching set-up, you only need to look across the channel to see the impact that Jérôme Garcès has had on the French team.”