Rassie ban: The public doesn't know the full story, says Nienaber

Springbok Head Coach Jacques Nienaber has suggested that there is more to the Rassie Erasmus ban than meets the eye.

Erasmus, who has time and again proved himself to be a maverick of the modern game, was recently banned for two matches following social media posts subtly criticising the officiating in both in the Boks’ Ireland and French Tests.

However, Nienaber has come out in defence of his colleague, suggesting that the public do not know the full story.

“In terms of Rassie’s ban, from our side, we are focused on the rugby,” Nienaber said.

“There will be a lot of questions about the ban. For me as a coach, I don’t want to go into those things.

“We are a tight-knit unit or team, everybody knows what’s going on, and we are open and transparent to everybody. For us that probably know the facts, sometimes for us it’s disappointing when certain facts don’t go out and then people from the outside form opinions because they don’t have those facts available.

“They don’t know all the facts, it is sad if you think about it. If all the facts are out there, people will form different opinions. I’m not pointing fingers at anybody; I don’t want to get involved in this.

“For us as a group, players, management, staff members involved in the Springbok team, we know about everything, we know all the facts,” said Nienaber.

Coming off the back of a strong victory over Italy last weekend, The Boks take on the English at Twickenham on Saturday.