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Dave Rennie reacts to Springboks’ response to ‘time wasting’ claim ahead of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie has reacted to Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus and SA Rugby law adviser Jaco Peyper’s response over accusations that the world champions are attempting to slow the game down. In the build-up to their tour of South Africa, Rennie has made no secret that his team will be employing an expansive game-plan and that they will be playing at a fast pace. Since Rennie replaced Scott Robertson as New Zealand‘s head coach, the men in black’s fast-paced approach has reaped the rewards as they beat France, Italy and Ireland in the Nations Championship last month and they also secured impressive victories against the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour. Springboks hit back at accusations On Monday, Erasmus and Peyper hit back at accusations that the Springboks are attempting to slow the game down. Erasmus was asked why Peyper and not a player was him at the press conference and he revealed that it was to address the claims around the speed of the game. “My opinion is New Zealand has played four matches, and there’s certainly been a narrative out there which I think is very technical around the speed of the game, the slowing down of the game, and Jaco is better able to answer those questions because he helps us with all those technical things around laws and so on,” said the Boks boss. Peyper then addressed the accusations and revealed that an agreement was put in place between coaches and match officials at a recent World Rugby Shape of the Game meeting on how the game should be played. “There was a Shape of the Game meeting at the beginning of the year where all the big-ticket issues in the world were discussed, and the things that come out of there are the key focus areas for referees,” explained the former Test referee. “That’s basically the contract between referees and coaches to say, coach your players to play this way and we will try and referee this way. “Then there’s alignment on Mondays post-match, so I think the main thing is that over the five games that we’ve played, we’ve not had one piece of feedback that we slow down the game.” Meanwhile, during an All Blacks press conference, Rennie was asked whether he expected Saturday’s opening Test against the Springboks in Johannesburg to be slowed down by the teams’ contrasting styles. Rennie left baffled “I’m not sure what Jaco would be referring to,” he said. “We’ve played club sides [in South Africa] where it’s been very slow. One of the lineouts against the Sharks took 50 seconds to set. “We found the Bulls had a much more positive mindset – there was a lot more ball in play. I’m anticipating the Springboks will feel the same way.” Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust. Rennie also confirmed that the head coaches would not holding a meeting around the topic of “time wasting” with English match official Matthew Carley, who will be refereeing the opening Test at Ellis Park on Saturday. “They [match officials] sent out an email last week around the four key areas and one of them was the time wasting,” said Rennie. “Rassie didn’t feel there was any need to meet and I feel the same way, to be honest. We’ve had conversations via email and we’ve got a summary sent to us this morning, so we’re pretty clear.” READ MORE: All Blacks: Dave Rennie makes bold comparison between Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series and World Cup