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Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was clearly frustrated, but side stepped the poor refereeing that led to a second permanent red card for a player in two weeks, during his team’s 32-14 win over Italy in Turin on Saturday.
In Paris against France the previous week it was a debatable straight red to Lood de Jager, but a week later against Italy it was just blatantly poor officiating that saw Franco Mostert sent off in the 11th minute of the match.
The Bok utility forward put in a big hit on Italian flyhalf Paolo Garbisi and New Zealand referee James Doleman, his assistants and the TMO, all somehow contrived to convince themselves that it was direct head contact, no wrap and no mitigation.
Clear mitigation
However, Mostert was bent, the contact was clearly on the chest/shoulder, his right arm was wrapping, and there was a second Bok tackler in the picture that contributed to it all, so even a yellow card would have been a harsh call, but surely it should have been a bunker review at worst.
After the game, Erasmus was asked to comment on the recent trend of reds going against his team, and it seemed like he wanted to say more, but instead focused on the lack of consistency from the reffing department on other high hits during the match.
“I always thought we wanted to get to 20-minute red cards and have a re-check on that. I thought it’s the way to go, but it’s not my place to talk about it,” said Erasmus.
“I’m not saying it is the wrong call. But we saw other calls in the game where there were head shots, but the game was not stopped. It is tough. I’m not blaming anyone, but the balance in calling the head shots was not equal in this game.”
‘It is what it is’
Erasmus also went back to his current favourite phrase when questioned about controversial refereeing decisions: “It is what it is”, while he also lamented the fact that captain Siya Kolisi had to take the blow and be substituted early twice — at halftime in his 100th game against France, and in the 45th minute against Italy.
“It is what it is. What I say here doesn’t matter. I’m just sad that our captain in his 100th game and his next game, had to be sacrificed (by being taken off early).”
Erasmus added that the Boks would have a good look at the game and see if they were in the wrong, but also admitted he wasn’t sure what more they could do to fix what they believed was good tackle technique.
“We will review the game, and maybe we will come to a different conclusion, and if we see that we were wrong most of the time, then we will rectify it,” claimed Erasmus.
“Losing two five-locks in two games for not going lower than they can is tough to understand and I’m not saying anyone is wrong by that. We don’t know how to coach guys any different. We’re really in a fix. For a 2m guy and a 2.06m guy to go lower than a guy on his knees, it’s tough.”
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