As though there was not an edge to the Ireland v South Africa rivalry, Simon Zebo raised a few eyebrows with his comments about Rassie Erasmus earlier this month.
Just before his final game of pro rugby, Zebo appeared on the Kick Ons Kick Offs podcast, and the topic of his former Munster coach Erasmus was broached by the Aussie hosts.
Zebo's comments certainly upped the ante ahead of next month's enticing test series between Ireland the defending world champions.
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.
Animosity from Rassie towards the Irish team would not exactly be a surprise to fans, given the history of rifts between the two parties.
The concept of mind games have been mastered by Erasmus, who followed up his pre-game antics at last year's World Cup by sharing video of South African fans singing the unofficial Irish anthem 'Zombie' after Ireland's exit from the competition.
Now back in his role as head coach of the Springboks, Erasmus is preparing his team to once again face Ireland in a two-test series next month.
The South Africa coach faced the media this week and responded publicly to Simon Zebo's comments.
Rassie Erasmus responds to eyebrow-raising Simon Zebo comments
Rassie Erasmus said that Simon Zebo had reached out to him to apologise for his comments on the Kick Ons Kick Offs podcast.
Just on the Simon Zebo thing. He messaged me, people who know Simon Zebo will know he's a joker. Every chance he gets, he makes a joke or a crack here or there.
He immediately messaged me and said, 'Look, that came out totally wrong. They don't even understand what I was trying to say.'
He apologised and said he must go back on air and rectify it.
I said, 'No, no, it's spiced it up. Let's keep it that way.'
Rassie's assessment of Simon Zebo will seem fair to Irish fans, with the ex-Munster star known for his joking reputation across his career.
The closing line from Erasmus is classic Rassie, with the Springboks coach welcoming anything that adds a bit of spice to the upcoming clash in South Africa.
It will be an intriguing two-test series in Pretoria and Durban next month, with Erasmus also arguing during his press conference this week that South Africa are "underdogs" for the game.
The Boks have not beaten Ireland since 2016 - though they have won two World Cups in that time.
With the likes of Cheslin Kolbe, Damien de Allende and Eben Etzebeth upping the ante in recent weeks, tensions are set to be running high at kick-off in Pretoria on July 6.
