Rassie Erasmus attempts to explain his Twitter rants

Rassie Erasmus defended his latest rugby tweets, urging Twitter users to hit the block button should they not want to follow him.

At a rousing Springbok team announcement meeting on Tuesday, SA’s outspoken director of rugby made an unscheduled with Bok head coach Jacques Nienaber.

Erasmus’s lengthy explanation for his tweets overshadowed the announcement of the Bok side to face Italy in Genoa on Saturday (kickoff 3pm SA time).

He has been active on Twitter since the Boks suffered narrow defeats to Ireland and France.

After the Boks’ loss to France in Marseille, Erasmus fired off a series of tweets accompanied by videos highlighting refereeing incidents.

“When I tweet, I don’t do it for people who don’t want to follow me,” Erasmus said. “I am trying to inform the SA fans who support us about things that happen on the field that we have to work hard on.

“Everybody takes it to the referees, and I did not once mention a referee. We owe it to our supporters to explain. The people who do not want this must block it.

“I don’t tag anyone on it, and I don’t expect people to listen. I don’t believe Wayne Barnes [referee] can even think the things I said SA must get right, point fingers at him.”

Erasmus said some users were twisting comments to suit themselves.

“If you go and read the tweets I think people immediately adjust something to the narrative they want to put out there. Even in tweets where we said the TMO was apparently not available.

“We said ‘I don’t believe Wayne Barnes will let that go and just say, listen the TMO was not available’. I just can’t believe that from Wayne Barnes. That is why we say we have no quarrels with that try.

“Surely there are SA supporters who would like to know where we are getting it right and where we are getting it wrong.

“If it is the way we communicate, read the game or our actions when we fall on the wrong side. Those are things that we need to fix.

“It is not having a go at the referee. He is the No 1 referee in the world and he has more than 100 Test matches.

“It is obviously something on our side that we have to fix. I think SA supporters would like to understand that and if people put a narrative on that ... I can’t control that, unfortunately.”

In team news, Jasper Wiese (No 8) returns to a Springbok starting line-up which features new lock and centre pairings for Saturday’s Test against Italy.

Springbok team: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Damian de Allende, 12 André Esterhuizen, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Franco Mostert, 6  Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche. Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff,  18 Vincent Koch, 19 Eben Etzebeth, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Evan Roos, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Manie Libbok.