Laurie Mains On His Rassie Erasmus Feud - And The ’95 RWC Poisoning

2026-08-19

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At the time of publishing this, the All Blacks are back in South Africa for a tour that is being called “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry”And it’s hard to argue with that. The rivalry between these nations went up a notch at the 1995 world cup when the Springboks beat the All Blacks by 3 points in extra time.In this FastCast, Laurie reflects on that 15–12 defeat at Ellis Park and the controversy surrounding it, including the forward-pass decision that denied Jonah Lomu a potential try and his long-held belief th...

At the time of publishing this, the All Blacks are back in South Africa for a tour that is being called “Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry”

And it’s hard to argue with that. The rivalry between these nations went up a notch at the 1995 world cup when the Springboks beat the All Blacks by 3 points in extra time.

In this FastCast, Laurie reflects on that 15–12 defeat at Ellis Park and the controversy surrounding it, including the forward-pass decision that denied Jonah Lomu a potential try and his long-held belief that members of the All Blacks squad were deliberately poisoned before the final.

The conversation then turns to Laurie’s bitter falling-out with current Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus.

Laurie coached Rassie at the Cats in South Africa during the early 2000s, but their relationship deteriorated amid disagreements over training, fitness, authority and the direction of the team.

If you search “Laurie Mains” you can listen top the full 2 hour conversation.

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