Spicy.

Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus has responded to Simon Zebo claiming he “hates the Irish” in a recent interview in typical fashion.

Zebo appeared on the Kick Offs and Kick Ons podcast earlier this month and blamed the “Dublin media” for South Africa’s ‘hatred’ of Ireland.

He also claimed that Erasmus is not Ireland’s biggest fan despite being very fond of Munster following his time there.

“I suppose it was a little bit extra around South Africa because Rassie had obviously coached us here in Munster and he’s been involved in the Irish set-up. Jacques Nienaber’s now coaching at Leinster and there’s a bit of rivalry,” Zebo said.

“Rassie hates the Irish, he really, really doesn’t like us, which is quite funny. It will build up even more and it drip feeds into the players. RG Snyman’s been copping a little bit of slack over it.

“It’s mainly the Irish media’s fault, based in Dublin I think, not the Irish media down here where I am.

“It’s going to be a juicy Test series, that’s for sure.”

Erasmus says Zebo has since messaged him since the interview came out and said that his claims came out ”totally wrong” but the South Africa boss loved them because it helped spice things up ahead of next month’s big series.

“He messaged me,” Erasmus said.

“People who know Simon Zebo would know he’s a joker, y’know? Every chance he gets, he makes a joke or a crack here or there. And he immediately messaged me and he goes, ‘Listen, that came out totally wrong, they totally didn’t understand what I was trying to say.’

”He apologised and said must he go back on air and rectify it. I said, ‘No, no. It spiced it up. Let’s keep it that way.’”