Williams accuses Erasmus of ‘bullying’ after barbed social media post

Springbok critic Matt Williams has claimed that Rassie Erasmus’ recent social media post highlighting his poor record as an international coach amounted to “bullying.”

Australian-born Williams, a former coach of New South Wales in Super Rugby and of the Scotland national team, has a long history of criticising Erasmus’ Springboks. Still, Erasmus, something of a social media king, is known to give as good as he gets.

Williams’ main objection to the Boks centres on their “misuse of substitutes with their Bomb Squad.” He has argued that the tactic is “discriminatory against backs” and even “contributed to the career-ending injury to Bok prop Steven Kitshoff.”

A fortnight ago, Williams inflamed tensions further when he compared the quality of rugby on the recent British and Irish Lions tour to Australia with the Lions tour of South Africa four years ago.

“The tour to South Africa was one of the worst ever,” Williams said on the Off the Ball podcast. “The worst games of international rugby I’ve ever seen.

"The way both management teams conducted themselves was disgraceful. Rassie was running on the field as a water carrier; there was a leaked video criticising referees … the style of rugby was an abomination.

“All they did was kick across the field and chase it. It was not played in a good spirit. It was aggressive, I have no problem with aggression, but it wasn’t in the spirit of rugby. It tarnished the image of the game.”

Williams, who has been a pundit for several Irish media platforms, added that the “disgrace” of that Lions tour to South Africa had been rectified by the “excellent” standard of rugby served up by the Lions and the Wallabies in Australia.

Erasmus’s response — posted on X — was uncompromising. He shared a screenshot of Williams’ poor record as Scotland coach.

The text read: “Matt Williams had a 17.65% win percentage during his tenure coaching Scotland.

"He coached the team in 17 matches, winning only three of them. Two of those wins were against Tier 2 nations, Japan and Samoa, according to Wikipedia.”

Erasmus’s caption was barbed: “Heal, Sir Matt.”

Williams replied: “Hi Rassie, playing the man and not the ball again? Always the sign of a weak argument.”

On Tuesday, following the Boks’ shock 38-22 defeat to the Wallabies at Ellis Park, Williams spoke again on Off the Ball:

“Really, what Rassie was doing was just bullying me. Just trying to say: ‘Well, your opinion doesn’t count.’

"It didn’t address the issue. Surely the best coach in the world has got something better to do than listen to what I’m saying.”

Williams revealed he had not even seen Erasmus’ post until alerted by his son.

“My son rang me up and said: ‘What did you say about Rassie Erasmus?’ I said: ‘I was talking about the Lions … what do you mean?’”

After the Boks’ defeat, Williams admitted he enjoyed the Wallabies’ triumph.

“The match started just after midnight here. When it was 22-0, I went to bed. I woke up in the morning, put the radio on, and the Wallabies had won – I said: ‘This can’t be true.’”