Former Cats and All Blacks coach Laurie Mains on Tuesday took the latest stab in the ongoing squabble between him and Springbok flanker Rassie Erasmus.

Mains responded to accusations levelled at him by the Cats loose forward in a newspaper on Monday in which he accused the coach of being dishonest, jealous and jeopardising the Super 12 team's season. Erasmus released a statement later that day saying he never meant for it to reach the media and that he would like to put the whole issue behind him.

However, when contacted by the Supersport Zone in New Zealand on Tuesday, Mains didn't let the opportunity slip to get in a couple of jabs of his own. He accused the flanker of lying about what happened, saying he only played for himself and never wanted to take orders from the management. He added that Erasmus was suffering and being treated for depression and that he was "very unstable at the moment.

"There is no denying that there was a clash of personalities between us, but some of the things he (Erasmus) has been quoted as saying of me are straight out fabrications," Mains told the website. "He says I prevented him from doing video analysis. What in fact happened was that I suggested he stop doing it to relieve him of the stress he was suffering."

He went on by saying that after Erasmus was outplayed by his opposite numbers in the games against the Waratahs, Brumbies and Hurricanes, he started doing his own thing. "By the time we got to the Chiefs, he (Erasmus) was starting to change the sequence of moves to suit himself and was starting to stand out among the centres.

"He was grizzling all the time and refusing to play the pattern. He (Rassie) tended to throw his toys and wanted to run the whole thing. In hindsight I can see that this whole thing came about because he was being beaten to the loose ball. That's what caused the problem," Mains adds in the report.