FEVER PITCH: Are the Boks rattled or rattling the cage, hungry to be let loose?

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> The build-up to the first Greatest Rivalry Test has lived up to the billing with words, but now it’s time for the teams to take the battle to the field.

Rassie Erasmus, the wily old master of mayhem and mischief, was up to his old tricks this week as the first Test of the first full series between the Springboks and All Blacks took centre stage.

World Rugby’s new protocols don’t allow coaches to speak directly to referees before Tests unless the opposing coach attends as well. So Erasmus sent an email to the All Blacks, saying they would not meet referee Matt Carley before the Test . All Blacks counterpart Dave Rennie was unsurprised, saying he wouldn’t have done so either.

Instead, it has been left to Erasmus and his Bok assistant coaches to address concerns they have in public via the media.

The first point of business was countering the All Blacks’ public claim that South Africa want to slow the game down, whereas New Zealand want to speed it up. The inference was clear – the All Blacks play by the rules – see how we run and put phases together and hurry to line-outs – and the Boks don’t.

Erasmus was never going to sit by idly and let this narrative be pushed. He turned up on Monday, 17 August, for a media briefing with laws adviser Jaco Pey­per, a former Test referee and attorney, at his side.

When the first question from the floor touched on the “slow” narrative, Erasmus and Peyper were anything but slovenly in the speed and depth of their responses.

Essentially they said the Boks had had no warnings about slow play from World Rugby through the appropriate channels, and they didn’t play boring rugby. Erasmus referenced last year’s record 43-10 win over the All Blacks in Wellington as evidence of being half-decent at rugby.

“Was that boring?” Erasmus asked rhetorically. All Blacks supporters might dislike that Wellington game for many reasons, but the Boks’ style of play can’t be one of them.

Peyper took aim at the old “ball-in-play” metric, which some pundits like to trot out as a measure of how good a game of rugby is.

“The ball was in play for 46 minutes in our last match against Argentina,” Peyper said of the turgid encounter two weeks ago, which the Boks won 17-10. “The ball was only in play for 32 minutes against France in Paris last year,” he said of that brilliant, drama-filled contest, which a a 14-man Bok squad won 32-17. The point was well made, even if it was from a sample size of two.

The pair continued to muse aloud on other issues, hinting at the potential ethical conflict of the match officials staying in the All Blacks’ hotel, where they might just run into Rennie over breakfast, or in the lift.

They threw out a line about “tucked arms” by All Blacks players when hitting the ruck, although they didn’t delve deeply into it.

That was left to assistant coach Felix Jones the following day. Jones expressed concern about what he saw as a tucked arm, leading with the shoulder into rucks.