Cape Town — While the All Blacks have expressed their unhappiness with the Springboks’ aerial challenges for the ball, Rassie Erasmus believes that it is an area of the game that “requires courage and technique”.
The tension around the Boks’ kicking game has been brewing since the Mbombela Test, where the South Africans pulled off an impressive 26-10 triumph.
And now Erasmus has had his say after watching Barrett’s interview with the All Black website on the incident involving Bok wing Kurt-Lee Arendse.
Spot on! An area of the game that requires courage and technique, and as you say injuries are part of the contest. We hope you get well soon and recover from this traumatic experience. pic.twitter.com/A5Be2ougVR
Barrett had gone up high to claim the ball, but was taken out in the air by Arendse, who was sent off with a red card by referee Angus Gardner with about five minutes left in the match.
Both players landed heavily and needed treatment, but Barrett was able to walk off, while Arendse was taken off on a stretcher.
The Bok No 14 later received a four-week suspension for what was deemed a dangerous tackle.
“It was quite a big collision and I did think the worst instantly, especially when I was on the ground and told to stay still,” Barrett said.
“It wasn’t until (the doctor) came on and asked me, ‘Can you move your fingers? Your toes?’ I was relieved to have passed those tests.
“I eventually sat up and was able to walk off and get on with it. But there was a fearful period there for a minute or so where you do think of the worst.
“It’s quite scary when you go over backwards and you find yourself come down on your head and shoulders.”
Earlier in the week, All Black scrumhalf Aaron Smith questioned the Boks’ kicking game tactics.
“Our ability to diffuse their bombs is something that we need to fix, but their tactics there are a little bit borderline,” Smith said.
“To see Beauden Barrett do a full flip is pretty scary. That is a part of the game that needs to be looked at a little bit. We have to do better to protect our jumpers, because as we saw, we stopped them around the 30-metre line and they just put a bomb up. But that works for them.”
New Zealand Ian Foster added that his team needed to come up with a solution for the aerial contests, where the likes of Arendse, Makazole Mapimpi and Damian Willemse made life difficult for the Kiwis.
“It is a big part of their game,” Foster said. “We’re going to have a look at them chucking bodies in the air … we were pretty frustrated with that.
“The one in the first half we weren’t very happy with, and certainly the last one, was very dangerous.
“But that’s part of the game we’ve got to sort out. If they’re going to just chuck bodies up, and just throw people up in the air, it’s a very hard thing to deal with. That’s the game. We missed one and they scored, and that got them the early momentum.”
Erasmus posted the video clip of Barrett talking about the Arendse incident on his Twitter account on Wednesday night, and wrote: “Spot on! An area of the game that requires courage and technique, and as you say, injuries are part of the contest. We hope you get well soon and recover from this traumatic experience.”
With Arendse unavailable, Bok coach Jacques Nienaber has brought in Jesse Kriel at right wing, while Barrett is on the bench for Saturday’s second Rugby Championship Test at Ellis Park (5.05pm kick-off).
IOL Sport