Ex-All Black’s verdict on ‘double whammy’ Ardie Savea decision and the ‘two special moments’ that caught his eye after full-time
Ardie Savea skippered the All Blacks in Saturday's win over the Springboks which was watch in Johannesburg by Ant Strachan, inset
Former All Black Ant Strachan has celebrated referee Matthew Carley’s decision not to yellow-card Ardie Savea at a crucial juncture in Saturday’s Greatest Rivalry win over the Springboks.
New Zealand were protecting a 26-16 lead at Ellis Park when the official was asked by TMO Mike Adamson to review the back-rower’s collision with Jasper Wiese, ultimately deciding there was no foul play involved.
Rather than seeing the tourists reduced to 14 players, frustrated South African fans were instead left dismayed as a follow-up incident in the same play was then reviewed and the outcome was a yellow card for Marco van Staden for illegally playing the opposition nine.
This was soon followed by another yellow card after play resumed, with Cobus Reinach dispatched to the sidelines for a deliberate knock-on, and the closing stage of the match was played out with 15 New Zealand players dominating South Africa’s 13.
“Lulled into a bit of a false sense of security…”
Carley’s role in how this closing segment of the match unfolded was saluted as the right call by retired All Black back Strachan, who featured off the bench at Ellis Park in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final loss to the Springboks.
Appearing on the DSPN Rugby show on YouTube from Johannesburg on Sunday, the day after the All Blacks secured their 33-16 victory in the first match of the four-Test Greatest Rivalry series, Strachan fished out the law book to illustrate how referee Carley had got the Savea decision spot on.
“We have all been lulled into a bit of a false sense of security around the tackle because nearly every time we see anything around the neck, it’s a yellow card,” he began. “So, we’re all sitting there in the crowd, as are many viewers back home, I’m sure, thinking, ‘This is going to be a yellow card’.
“But to the letter of the law, and this is what it [the law] states: When you determine the initial impact of a tackle, if you’re not quite sure, you must watch the head. If it goes forward, the force is below the neck. If it goes back, the force is on the neck or above, which would be a yellow card. He has determined, and good on them for overruling it, too, that his head went forward and there was no contact on the neck.
“We all sat there thinking that’s going to be a yellow card, but look, I applaud referees that actually do watch and are very confident in what they see first time round and they don’t have the monitors. And I think the other thing too, we haven’t mentioned this too much, referees nowadays have so much traffic coming down their ears from the TMOs, from everyone else. You know, it must be a bit disconcerting for a referee.
“I’m trying to rule on one thing I see and I’m hearing all these other things that come to me all the time. I mean that would be difficult. So good on him and he made the right call.
“It was a double whammy for South Africans because they thought Ardie should be in the bin and no, he’s not. And they lost a person [Van Staden]. When they went down to 14 and then 13, the game was over then. We were actually dominating at that late stage.”
With the All Blacks finishing with a winning flourish, it allowed Strachan and fellow New Zealand supporters to enjoy the post-match reactions. “Two special moments for me: after the game, the South African team walked down to our corner and all the Kiwi fans got up and clapped. So special moment.
“You know, we’re humble. We love our victories, of course, but we don’t throw it in people’s faces. And then obviously when Rennie and his coaching crew came over, the same thing, the players as well.
“I don’t know whether anyone saw this, but I saw Neil Barnes. He kind of just separated himself a little bit from the group. Had his hands on his head and was like, ‘I just don’t believe this. I can’t believe I’m here doing this’. How special is that? He’s a quality man.
“The occasion itself, I thought they [SA Rugby] did a great job in terms of the pre-match stuff and the scene set and the crowd – not an empty seat – but that initial 10 minutes they were brutal defensively.
“I don’t think we made one post-contact metre, so it was double shoulders all the time. They pushed us back behind the gain line and we were a little bit awestruck. Bang, how are we going to breach these guys?
“But that’s another part of the game that we came over the top in the end; we just absorbed it all. Didn’t panic. No one panicked. Our game drivers, (Cam) Roigard, (Ruben) Love, didn’t panic, (Damian) McKenzie at the back. Just our ability to absorb that stuff was phenomenal.”
Strachan also dwelt on New Zealand’s ability to somehow say in the scrum contest, giving up a series of penalties before a crucial decision was given in their favour when ahead 19-16 and defending for their lives five metres from the try line.
“Your game drivers have got to get together and sort of ascertain what they’re going to do defensively because obviously there is a defensive role to play at scrum time for backs, so they’ve got to sort that out.
“And from a scrummaging perspective, and I don’t like all the nuances of scrummaging, but it’s just here’s another one, here’s another one, we have to deliver another one. We got that one wrong. We got to get this one right.
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“What do you got to do? Shift the hips a bit, drop lower, full extension. I don’t know whatthey’re talking about, but it’s just another opportunity to get one back and we actually did.
“They [South Africa] are not only a big physical scrum, but they’re technically very, very proficient as well, so to get that penalty was a pivotal moment because it’s like saying at the end of the day, you can beat us all day long at scrum time and get nine penalties in a row, but we got that one.”
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