Rassie Erasmus was left seething on Saturday evening after his All Blacks counterpart accused the Springboks of foul play following their 33-26 victory in Cape Town.
The Springboks held on to win at DHL Stadium, surviving a late New Zealand comeback to level the Test series at 1-1. However, Erasmus' mood was soured when All Blacks coach Dave Rennie once again raised concerns about the refereeing of the scrum.
Erasmus hits back at scrum accusations
Having admitted a few days ago that he'd spoken to World Rugby about South Africa's scrummaging, Rennie appeared to suggest the Springboks' dominance in that area of the game on Saturday was achieved illegally.
"It is still a bit of an issue for us because they [Springboks] are able to walk around and go straight through our tightheads," Rennie said.
"I think Angus [Gardner, referee] was pretty strong around setting a mark and then trying to keep the hookers in the same sort of spacing," the All Blacks boss explained. "If the Springboks moved across further left, then he stopped them."
"We will ask a bit of feedback around that. And there's a couple of little technical things that we will share again [with World Rugby's match officials]."
Upon learning of Rennie's remarks, a clearly irritated Erasmus responded forcefully, saying: "Well, we've been playing with a pack of these guys together, it's the first time ever in history that people are talking about us walking around.
"Why would we want to start a walk around in this [Test]. At the first six scums for New Zealand, every single one collapsed and it was reset, reset, reset, reset, so why is it only on their ball that the scum can't collapse every single time?"
"I don't come with that nonsense and saying we're walking around and trying to put things out in the media. If I'm starting to put things out, well the last lineout was skew and we contested, I'm not going to moan my arse off about that, so if you just want to start moaning about stuff like that then you are under pressure."
"Last week we didn't moan. There was clear head contacts a lot of times and today in the first forty there was four head contacts and nothing was done about it. Don't try and convince the people [referees and public] through the media because that was what happened in the first week, they tried to convince the people in the media we're slowing the game down and we were not."
"If the referees get caught up by that then there's obviously a plan to get that message out and then we're not going to stay quiet and just say 'oh you're right we're walking around'."
"We're not f****** walking around, we're just coming through [the middle], we've never ever been accused of walking around so I don't understand it."
Front-row changes explained
The scrum didn't only dominate matters post-match, but also pre-match. An hour before kick-off, Erasmus switched around his entire front-row. Hooker Deon Fourie, along with props Gerhard Steenekamp and Thomas du Toit were promoted from the bench to the starting XV, with Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw going the other way.
The unprecedented move, which some might see as gamesmanship, took many by surprise - with Erasmus explaining his thinking afterwards.
"We thought it was going to be wet, and that's why we picked the front row [we did on Monday]," Erasmus said. "The whole weather prediction, the whole week was going to be wet, and we thought then we would need a heavier front row for the first half of the game."
"We were always going to use two front rows, but then, first [part] of the game, depending on the weather, it's going to be dry. And then we thought the front row would be a little bit lighter. It would be better on the dry side."
He added: "For me, you know, a simple example, I know a lot of people say, why did he take Siya [Kolisi, Springboks captain] off? Siya's first total minutes now are 50 minutes, and it's in eight weeks, so he was going to get tired. That's why we took him off.
"Deon Fourie, he's 39 years old, he's played 65 minutes against the All Blacks in six weeks, so he was going to get tired. And you could see he missed the tackle when they scored the one try."
"And then also, Ox in the match prior to the previous game, he played eight minutes. And then last week, he played 45 minutes. Now, in the first game, of course, he didn't start, he played just 55 minutes."
"If the guys stay productive on the field, and they keep doing their job, then we pull it back, and we do it the moment they're no longer productive."
Rennie unfazed, Wallabies win, Willemse out
For what it's worth, All Blacks boss Rennie had few complaints about the late announcement - as well as the changes South Africa made to their team through the week.
"It doesn't worry me at all," he said. "They named their team on Monday."
"It had no bearing on the team that we named. No drama from my perspective. I guess when you name a team on Monday, there's a chance that there are going to be changes.
"To be fair, we took minimal notice of the team on Monday because there's a chance that it's going to be different on Saturday. I think regardless of who they name on Monday, the game plan is going to be the same."
New Australia coach Les Kiss earned the biggest scalp of his reign to date, as the Wallabies edged out Argentina 27-21 in San Salvador de Jujuy. Having beaten Japan twice in his first two games, Kiss remains unbeaten with this impressive victory. The Wallabies began well, with two tries in the opening 15 minutes from Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Carter Gordon. Geronimo Prisciantelli got Argentina on the board, only for Fraser McReight to dot down to put the Wallabies 19-7 ahead. However, a yellow card for winger Harry Potter shifted the momentum midway through the first-half - with Argentina working their way back into the contest. Joaquin Moro and Boris Wenger went over either side of Ryan Lonergan's penalty to leave Australia with just a one-point lead. Tom Hooper's 55th-minute try stretched their lead to six points - with the Wallabies then holding on for the rest of the match.
Ahead of next week's third Test in Soweto, Erasmus has confirmed that Damian Willemse will miss out through injury. The full-back limped off in the final play of the first-half, with Manie Libbok coming on as his replacement. "Damian Willemse? He's injured his hamstring, he's out for next week," Erasmus said after the match.
