Deadpan Victor Matfield accuses All Blacks of ‘choosing’ to slow down Baltimore Test
All Blacks haka before fourth Springboks Test and former South Africa lock Victor Matfield.
Sir John Kirwan was left fuming after Springboks legend Victor Matfield claimed that it was the All Blacks who were trying to slow the game down at the weekend.
Prior to Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, New Zealand looked to create the narrative that they would be eager to play the game at pace and the South Africans wouldn’t.
All Blacks boss Dave Rennie sought to plant that seed in the minds of the officials, but ultimately it did not work when it came to the end result after the Boks sealed a 3-1 series success.
Rennie’s men had a chance to level the series in Baltimore but their opponents proved to be far too strong with a 43-28 triumph at M&T Bank Stadium.
Kirwan’s frustration with Matfield’s comments
Following that result, Kirwan and Matfield discussed the finale and the tour as a whole, but the latter was in a provocative mood.
“It was you guys who chose to slow down the game, I don’t know why,” the Springboks’ former record cap holder said with a deadpan expression on the Rivals podcast.
However, the All Blacks legend took the bait and was incandescent, saying: “We tried to slow down the game? Are you kidding yourself?
“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, ‘we slowed the game down’.”
Matfield continued to poke the bear further by adding: “You did in that first half, you were down the whole time trying to get strapping, blood replacements, I don’t know what else.”
Host of the show, Ric Salizzo, then interjected, suggesting to Matfield that the Boks also got in on the act, especially in the second period when Pieter-Steph du Toit went down with an injury.
“There was probably the most blatant slowing down you’ve ever seen when Pieter-Steph du Toit was down behind the posts, then he ran all the way to halfway and then he went down again,” Salizzo said.
“Even the referee said to him, ‘you’re kidding me aren’t you?’”
Matfield the wind-up merchant?
Matfield insisted that Du Toit only did that because he was actually struggling, before the legendary Boks lock perhaps hinted that he was actually on the wind-up.
“Well, he just wanted strapping on his knee. He did go off because of that injury two minutes later and Cameron Hanekom came on and actually made a big impact,” he said.
“Also in the first half, you sat down three or four times and you pulled out the the referee’s earpiece so that he couldn’t hear, so we had to slow down again.”
An irate Kirwan did not appear to notice, though, snapping back: “You have selective eyesight”, before suggesting that a pedantic referee influence the pace of the game, but Matfield disagreed.
“I didn’t feel like he slowed it down, I think some circumstances, like the earpiece, slowed it down and then quite a few injuries, quite a few blood injuries, so that slowed it down,” the ex-South African second-row said.
“Also, I don’t know how the communication was with the TMO because it took a long time to get those decisions made but I thought all the decisions they made with the TMO were spot on.”
