Rassie Erasmus stokes the flames ahead of first Irish Test

As the Irish players and coaches do their utmost to duck and dodge any questions about some verbal hand grenades coming out of the South African camp, Rassie Erasmus has continued to operate in the only way he knows how.

A few days on from giving his prediction of what the Irish matchday squad will look like on Saturday, the Springboks' head coach reported for media duty in Pretoria today with a metaphorical saucepan and spoon.

Among the highlights, a tease that there could be a late switch to a 7:1 split on the bench.

The World Cup-winning coach showed his cards early this week by naming his team this afternoon, with Grant Williams and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu the only two backs among his replacements.

"There are one or two niggles, so there's a possibility for a 7:1 as well but we'll look at that on Thursday and I don't want to elaborate on that too much," Erasmus trailed.

The build-up to this series has been littered with some good natured mind games, mainly coming from the Boks camp, and it appeared to reach a tipping point when former Ireland international Simon Zebo said how his ex-Munster boss "hates" Ireland, a story he later suggested had been taken out of context.

And Erasmus suggested that the Irish media had been the ones stoking the flames.

"It's the same as when we play the All Blacks and when we play big teams. I think the rivalry is more from their media side than from ours.

"I think sometimes maybe they don't 100% understand the South African sense of humour, why we find something funny, and sometimes it's quoted out of context. Take Simon Zebo as an example, the guy phoned me and says it (his comment) was on a podcast, we had a few beers, made the craic and he said that."

Sitting by Rassie's side was Eben