Brenden Nel's piece argues that the real story of the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry Series wasn't the on-field comeback but a parallel battle of narratives — one that Rennie ultimately lost to his own overreach. The analysis traces how Rennie dominated early media cycles with complaints about South African scrummaging and time-wasting, briefly putting the Boks on the back foot. But when Rennie escalated after the first-test blowout — formally accusing the Bok scrum of being illegal and lodging a complaint with World Rugby — he crossed a line that proved costly. Erasmus's single expletive-laden response was the only flash of public anger all series; behind the scenes, it lit a fire under Daan Human and the Bok pack that the All Blacks never recovered from. Nel also dissects the Neil Barnes post-series complaint about brake-foot penalties as an accidental self-indictment: referees were scrutinising scrums precisely because Rennie had made them a talking point, and Barnes was effectively arguing that laws should only be enforced selectively in New Zealand's favour. The broader conclusion is that Rassie read the moment better — he took the bait once, then went quiet and coached, while Rennie kept spinning a narrative that had already backfired.