During the contentious trip, which coincided with COVID-19, there were no fans present and rigorous protocol was followed.
The South Africa “A” warm-up match was threatened by regulations that were in effect at the time.
Erasmus believed they would not have had enough playing time to compete with the tourists if that had not happened.
Because of this, the director of rugby at the time threatened to leave along with Nienaber if the problem wasn’t fixed in a letter to the chief executive.
Erasmus writes, “This is probably where the tour started getting sour.”
“I invited the management and a few players to come to my room and believe me. I stated that the current state of affairs, in which we were stranded in the hotel while the Lions were playing rugby, could not continue.
“I said, ‘If we don’t play this SA A game in Cape Town, how the f*** are we going to play against the Lions?'” We needed that game before the Tests and were not match fit, therefore we were going to lose badly.
Then, I informed Jurie Roux in a letter that Jacques and I were quitting since we couldn’t simply discard the Springboks’ name in that manner.
“I said that we couldn’t continue, even though I knew that we were financially dependent on the series and that SA Rugby needed it to succeed.”
triumph from adversity
Even though they lost the opening game, things were eventually resolved, and the Springboks went on to win the series 2-1.
Since then, both Erasmus and Nienaber have stayed in their current roles as South Africa looks to defend its World Cup title in France.
“He could find new coaches, we said, but we weren’t the ones who would be careless and let the Springboks play against international teams and give up 50 points because we hadn’t played enough rugby,” Erasmus continued.
