Lions tour: South Africa boss Rassie Erasmus accused of 'using a fake Twitter account' to blast refs

South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has been accused of setting up a fake account on social media to criticise the Lions after their first Test defeat on Saturday.

The Springboks fell to a 22-17 loss in Cape Town and Erasmus has been vocal in his criticism of Warren Gatland’s men online – both retweeting and responding to two posts from an anonymous user called Jaco Johan. 

Erasmus – who was responding to the only two tweets the account has posted – retweeted footage circling a handful of incidents, including what appeared to be a high tackle from Owen Farrell on scrum-half Faf de Klerk.

South Africa rugby chief Rassie Erasmus has been accused of making a fake Twitter account to criticise the Lions following his side’s defeat in the first Test on Saturday evening

Ersamus responded to an anonymous account who had outlined ‘questionable calls’

He retweeted a video the user uploaded which highlighted incidents that didn’t go their way

After the defeat, he hailed the Lions for their performance and said his own players had ‘no excuses’ in his own tweet. 

‘No excuses this side!!’ he wrote. ‘You are far away from home, families and going through same tough covid protocols like we do!! Congrats and well deserved !!!’

Johan then replied to the tweet, saying: ‘Respect your attitude in defeat, but there were some questionable calls. I’ll highlight a few.’

The account then posted another video which outlined further moments that went against South Africa – with a handful of Lions players circled for alleged wrongdoing during the match in high-quality footage.

Erasmus replied to the user again, saying: ‘Thanks. This is rugby – sometimes calls go for you and other times they dont.’ 

Erasmus slammed the Lions for their ‘dangerous and reckless’ play in the Cape Town clash 

Rugby fans took cheeky digs at Eramus online amid rumours he could have created the account, with one saying it was ‘the best thing I’ve seen on Twitter’.

Another wrote: ‘My favourite thing about this whole saga is how obvious it is that Jaco Johan is also Rassie.’

‘Rassie Erasmus using a burner account very badly is the best rugby story of the year so far,’ one fan added.

And a user also pointed out that the account in question had access to ‘high spec’ content despite having very few followers. 

Erasmus had initially been graceful in defeat and hailed Warren Gatland’s side for their display

‘Am I the only one absolutely loving the fact Rassie Erasmus is using a burner account to have a conversation with himself? This is going to backfire as the conversation will be about Rassie and not the high spec content this Johan with 27 followers seems to have.’

Sportsmail has contacted the Springboks for comment. 

Erasmus had already been taking pot shots at the Lions on social media after the game despite being humble in defeat initially and pointed out some ‘reckless and dangerous’ play from Gatland’s side.

He highlighted a clip that saw Ali Price tackle Cheslin Kolbe close to the touchline before Mako Vunipola picked the Springboks wing up off the floor.

‘Cheslin is obviously played in the air and clearly not direct into touch!! More importantly for youngsters watching this clip!!!!’ Erasmus tweeted.

‘Please never move or touch an injured player on the ground, its reckless and dangerous!’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk

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