STEVE TANDY has shot down South Africa Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus’s attempts to highlight alleged foul play by the Lions via social media, stating that it is not the correct forum to be questioning the match officials and labelling Lions player Mako Vunipola as “reckless" and “dangerous”.
Erasmus has caused controversy during this tour by operating as water-boy for the Springboks and for his use of Twitter, although it is only fair to acknowledge that Warren Gatland is also happy to indulge in a spot of gamesmanship if he thinks it will boost his team’s chances.
“Being a bit of a dinosaur, I’m not on Twitter and things, so I’m just getting lots of hearsay,” said Tandy. “But, ultimately, it’s his viewpoints and with the officials we thought they did a really good job at the weekend. If there’s anything we’ve got to bring up we’ll just go through the appropriate channels.
“We’ve just got to concentrate on what we do, and at the end of the day we’ll do our talking on the field with how we go about things. Rassie’s comments are his own comments, but our message is more focussing on what we are, what we need to tidy up and making sure we are nice and clean with how we go about things.
“It’s a tough job for the officials and I know everyone moans around certain decisions and there are obvious frustrations we get as coaches, but if we can keep it to the proper channels I think that is the best way. It’s tough for coaches, it’s tough for players and it’s definitely tough for referees too.”
“We don’t want the games going forever,” he added. “It is just the major calls we want to get right and spend the appropriate time on, and not necessarily the little bits.
“I know Rassie is coming out and saying bits and pieces around the performance at the weekend, but every team has got those moments. Every team could go through micro-details and analyse it that way. We do it ourselves. But it is then about going through the appropriate channels and raising the points that are relevant, and not making it about every small detail."
Tandy also revealed that Welsh loose-head prop Wyn Jones is “doubtful” for Saturday’s second Test due to the shoulder injury which forced him to pull out lof ast weekend’s game. However, the Lions are not planning to call in extra cover in that specialist position. Meanwhile, Dan Biggar is going through the six-stage return to play protocol following a concussion on Saturday and won’t be able to train fully with the team until Thursday. There are no other injury concerns in the squad at the moment.
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