Nigel Owens weighs in on Cheslin Kolbe gaffe and how bizarre Argentina try could have been ruled out
Former Test referee Nigel Owens and Cheslin Kolbe's dropout gaffe against Argentina.
Former Test referee Nigel Owens insisted the correct call was made following Cheslin Kolbe’s gaffe, but stated that there was an avenue to disallow the try.
Argentina were awarded a score in the first half of their Rugby Championship clash against South Africa last weekend after the officials deemed that the wing had taken a drop-kick.
Kolbe had initially touched the ball down, giving the Springboks a goal-line dropout, but he opted to put boot to ball instead of using his hands to pass it to the designated kicker.
‘All covered and correct’
“Everything that happens here is all covered and correct in law,” Owens said on World Rugby’s Whistle Watch, before he pondered the scenario which could have ruled the score out.
While the officials followed the situation to the letter, they could have determined that Kolbe was only trying to hand it over to the kicker, most likely Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who would then take the dropout.
“The ball is grounded hence it’s going to be a goal-line dropout. Now, the only question around this is; is Kolbe actually taking the goal-line dropout or is he kicking over to a team-mate to take it? That’s the only thing we can debate here,” Owens said.
“Because he drop-kicks it, it deems to everybody that he has taken it, except his own players. It doesn’t go past the five-metre line but advantage then applies, Argentina pick it up and they quite rightly score.
“Everything the referee does here is correct in law, the only question around it would be, do you feel that he was actually trying to get it to a team-mate? If you felt that was the case then you could say: ‘Hang on boys, he’s just passing it to a team-mate, let’s take the goal-line dropout’.
“But everything is correct in law and the try is correctly awarded.”
Argentina’s penalty try
That try was not the only big moment of the opening period as Malcolm Marx was shown a yellow card for taking down a Los Pumas maul, which resulted in a penalty try.
“Argentina have a driving maul, it’s going towards the try-line. What Malcolm Marx does is he comes in from the side. He’s not allowed to come in from the side, he must join behind his own hindmost foot,” Owen said.
“He must also attempt to defend it by preventing him grounding the ball rather than illegally collapsing it.
“He comes in from the side, he causes it to collapse and then the only question the referee needs to decide on here is whether he thinks the illegal actions of Malcolm Marx prevented a try from probably being scored, then it will be a penalty try and yellow card.
“In this instance, it’s pretty difficult to argue that a try probably wouldn’t have been scored, it looks like it’s going to be scored and hence the referee gave the decision.
“The other important thing to remember as well is once you identify the individual that has caused you to give that penalty try, it has to be a yellow card, there’s no negotiations around that.
“You commit an offence that results in a penalty try, as long as the referee can identify you, you will be automatically yellow carded.”
Those errors from Kolbe and Marx meant the Springboks were 23-18 in arrears just before the break, but they would hit back to claim a dominant 67-30 triumph and go top of the Rugby Championship.
READ MORE: If this isn’t Rassie Erasmus’ ‘strongest’ Springboks team, what is?
