Fuming Rassie Erasmus hits out at ‘not equal’ officiating of head shots after second successive Springboks red card
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and an inset of Franco Mostert tackling Paolo Garbisi
Rassie Erasmus was clearly annoyed that another Springboks lock was red-carded, with Franco Mostert sent off in the 32-14 win over Italy.
Last week, it was Lood de Jager whose actions were deemed always illegal and he was given his marching orders after 38 minutes against France.
That was in Siya Kolisi’s 100th Test for the Boks, and he was forced off at half-time, and this week that proved to be the case again, with the captain making way earlier in the second half.
Rassie’s response to another red card
Ben-Jason, playing his first Test of the year, was also sacrificed early on after Mostert was sent off and Ruan Nortje needed to run the lineout.
Speaking after the game, Erasmus couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“It is what it is. What I say here can’t make a difference,” he began.
“I’m just very grateful that we had Ben O’Keefe on the one AR side and the referee who is experienced, because obviously we’ve got the referee mic on and all the noise that was coming from there, it was difficult to follow the match. So we later just put off the speaker, and I’m not saying there’s any negative way it was just a very busy and a lot of the calls made from there.
“What I can say is that it is very sad that our captain, in his 100th game and in his next game, had to be sacrificed.”
While the 20-minute red card law has been trialled recently, in both cases the Springboks’ locks were deemed to always be illegal, and because of that judgment by the officials, nothing but a permanent red card could be issued after World Rugby aligned the trial with the head contact process.
Springboks greats accuse officials of ‘fabricating’ events to red card Franco Mostert
Erasmus rued the fact that Mostert’s tackle wasn’t sent to be reviewed by the Foul Play Review Officer and the impact that the full red card had on other players in his team.
“I always thought we wanted to get to 20-minute red cards and have a re-check on that,” he said.
“I thought that’s the way to go. It’s not my place to talk about it, but for a captain like him to twice in a week he had to suffer for us to win because of a call, and I’m not saying that the referee made the wrong call, but I definitely saw a lot of other shots in the game. That first tackle he [Kolisi] took was right against the head. So, it’s tough.
“I’m not saying anybody was wrong. I just thought the balance of calling the head shots was not equal. By that I’m not criticising. That’s what I experienced live, and when we review the game, we might come to a different conclusion and just see that we were totally wrong most of the time, and then we have to go and rectify it.”
How can they go lower?
The Bok boss added that the coaching team and players pride themselves on going lower and not making high and dangerous tackles, but he is baffled as to how his locks could have done any better in those incidents.
“Losing two five locks in two games, for not going lower than they can, it’s tough to understand and I’m not saying anybody’s wrong by that, but we don’t know how to coach guys to even lower,” he continued.
“We are really a bit in a fix for a 2 metre guy and 2.06 metre guy to go lower than on his knee. So it’s tough to play with 13 men, they also were 14, it was difficult. I thought it was tougher than last week.
“It’s unfair on individuals like Siya, like Ben-Jason Dixon, who was getting his chance for the first time in a long time, and then he had to be subbed, Siya last week and this week again. So, making plans the whole squad was involved, Eben and Pieter-Steph were in there at half-time, making plans on how to win the game.
“We are very proud team in the way we do level changes to try and avoid head contacts and we’ve received just so many red cards, Mapimpi six-weeks and we are really trying hard because it’s not just those guys who suffer and the game that suffers, I mean we beat Italy with 14 men it’s an embarrassment for them. But we know they are a good team, even if we were at 15, we were going to start to struggle.
“When I say embarrassment, it’s we beat them with 14 men, but they also had 14 at one stage, so, it’s more what happens from those decisions. For the referee, he doesn’t have slow motion and all the things that happen there. He trusts very much on the team and I think it was two French TMOs or a TMO and the one AR, I’m not 100% sure.
“We did get better but individuals suffer in big moments and things that they can celebrate and that makes us tighter as a team and makes us more desperate, but it doesn’t take the hurt away.
“So, yes, we are glad that we could overcome that, but I’m a bit I’m sad for Ben-Jason and for Siya because they are also guys who have to take the brunt for what somebody else did by accident or did wrong, which then gets a red card. So we’re happy with the character, but I’m sad for the guys who take the brunt of it.”
