Rassie Erasmus and Dave Rennie had a beer straight after the Test. Rennie says so.
He said it in Johannesburg on Thursday, in the same week Erasmus called his scrum complaint “nonsense” and swore about it at a press conference. The two coaches have also already joked about Sunday, when both squads board one charter to Baltimore a few hours after trying to beat each other at FNB Stadium. Somebody on that plane will have lost the series lead. Rennie has a view on where that man should sit.
Is this a feud, or two coaches enjoying a fortnight of headlines? Pick a side in the comments, then read what each of them actually said.
Rassie Erasmus, the Springboks head coach, and Dave Rennie, his All Blacks counterpart, shared a post-match beer during the 2026 series, according to both men, and will travel on the same charter flight to Baltimore on 6 September 2026 for the fourth Test.
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“I’ve said a couple of things. He said a couple of things.”
The question in Johannesburg was polite. Was there anything, in Rennie’s mind, between him and the South African coach after a week of scrum headlines?
“It’s to do with the scrum. I got asked a question in the media and I said what I thought,” Rennie said. “We’re certainly not going out of our way to create narratives. Rassie and I had a beer immediately after the game, which was good.”
Then the line the All Blacks put on the video title. “I don’t see it as [a] war of words between him and I. I’ve said a couple of things, he said a couple of things, and that’s footy.”
He also said he had not read any of it. Asked whether the Springboks were overreacting, Rennie said he knew there had been a reaction on the night and was “not aware there’s been more of that going on during the week”.
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What Rassie Erasmus had actually said about Dave Rennie’s complaint
Plenty. At his post-match press conference in Cape Town, reported by ESPN, Erasmus said it was “the first time ever in history that people are talking about us walking around”, and asked why his pack would suddenly start now. He said the Springboks were “not f—ing walking around”, they were “scrumming through”.
He repeated the objection at Monday’s team naming. So by Thursday the story on both sides of the Indian Ocean was a coaches’ spat, and Rennie was being asked about it as if it were one.
The beer had happened before any of that. Or, depending on which coach you ask, two beers.
Erasmus got there first
Before Cape Town, Erasmus told reporters that he and Rennie had a beer after Ellis Park and were “going to try to catch up on Friday for a beer in Cape Town”. His condition: “without the referee”. He had declined the joint pre-match referee meeting, which he said the current protocol only allows with both coaches in the room, on the grounds that no coach can talk honestly with the opposition listening.
So the two men were planning to drink together while refusing to sit in the same referee briefing. Rennie’s version on Thursday has the beer after the game, not before it. Whether that was a second beer or a different memory of the first, neither man is counting.
Anyone who has played knows the after-match. You spend 80 minutes trying to put a man through the turf, then you stand next to him with a drink, and neither part is an act. Coaches are no different, whatever the week’s headlines say.
“Someone’s going to be grumpy getting on a plane. So I’m not sure we’re sitting together, but we’re certainly on the same plane.”
Dave Rennie, Johannesburg, 3 September 2026
The plane
Both squads fly out of Johannesburg on Sunday on a single charter for the fourth Test at M&T Bank Stadium on 12 September. Erasmus described the seating this week: coaches and the most-capped players in business class, the rest in economy with a row each to lie down. “Yesterday you were going hard at each other, and now we’re sitting in a plane for many hours.”
Rennie’s take was shorter. He and Erasmus had “joked about it last week” because one of them will board having lost. Then he widened it to the players. “Both sides are trying to rip the heads off for 80 minutes, but when they connect, have a few beers, there’s a lot of goodwill there.”
The counter-case: a beer settles nothing
None of this changes what is on the table. Rennie says the All Blacks have sent scrum footage to the officials more than once and that both camps’ clips are now with the referee. Erasmus has said the complaint is an attempt to influence referees through the media. Nick Mallett, on the Talking Boks podcast this week, went further and said the All Blacks collapse scrums on purpose.
Two coaches who like each other can still be trying to get the other one refereed. The beer is real. So is the row.
What happens next
The third Test kicks off at 17:10 SAST on Saturday at FNB Stadium. The charter leaves on Sunday. The fourth Test is in Baltimore on Saturday 12 September, and whichever coach lost on the Highveld has a long flight to think about it.
If the Springboks lose on Saturday, does Rassie Erasmus still take the seat next to Rennie?
Questions readers are asking
Did Rassie Erasmus and Dave Rennie have a beer together?
Yes, according to both coaches. Erasmus said before the second Test that they had a beer after Ellis Park and planned another on the Friday in Cape Town. Rennie said on 3 September that they had a beer “immediately after the game” and that he does not see the scrum row as a war of words.
Are the Springboks and All Blacks flying to Baltimore together?
Yes. Both squads travel on one charter flight from Johannesburg on Sunday 6 September 2026, the day after the third Test at FNB Stadium, for the fourth Test at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on 12 September. Erasmus said coaches and senior players sit in business class.
What did Rassie Erasmus say about Dave Rennie’s scrum comments?
After the Cape Town Test on 29 August 2026, Erasmus called the claim that the Springboks “walk around” at the scrum nonsense, said it was the first time in history anyone had accused them of it, and said his pack scrum through opponents rather than around them.
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