Schalk Burger accuses Scotland star of ‘milking’ suspected headbutt: ‘Where else must he go?’
Ben-Jason Dixon's incident with Scott Cummings with an inset of the latter clutching his face.
Schalk Burger believes that Ben-Jason Dixon was harshly penalised with a yellow card for what Scotland boss Gregor Townsend described as a ‘headbutt’.
Referee Pierre Brousset reviewed the incident, which occurred early in the second half after being prompted by his TMO, Richard Kelly, that potential foul play had occurred.
Springbok’s yellow card
The French official deemed that the Springboks replacement’s actions met the yellow card threshold and duly issued the yellow card and sent the incident to be reviewed by the Foul Play Review Officer, Olly Hodges, who deemed that a yellow card sanction was sufficient.
“We have a decision from the bunker,” Brousset said as he began to explain the FPRO’s verdict. “The yellow card remains a yellow card; it’s a glancing contact, no high degree of danger.”
Speaking after the match, Scotland boss Townsend took exception to the decision, and felt that it was in fact a headbutt: “Yeah, it looked like a head-on-head collision. I heard that it was viewed as a glancing blow, so I was obviously disappointed that a headbutt, which is what it looked like from our case, was viewed that way.”
Schalk Burger’s take on Ben-Jason Dixon’s yellow card
A similar incident occurred earlier in the day when Italy lock Niccolò Cannone was issued with a 20-minute red card for his collision with All Blacks’ scrum-half Cam Roigard. The Azzurri star has since been slapped with a four-game ban for his actions.
However, Burger believes that even a yellow card was too harsh a punishment for Dixon and accused Scotland lock Scott Cummins of milking the incident to get a decision from the officials.
He made the claim on the Verdict show when talking about the Springboks’ ill-discipline during the clash at Loftus Versfeld.
“Straight after half-time, in the first minute, was it Elrigh Louw, lineout maul, penalty, and straight off the back of it, it’s Ben-Jason Dixon and I think that was quite harsh actually,” Burger said.
“He gets a yellow card for finding the space in between the shoulder battle and then clips Scott Cummins with the back of his head. He obviously milks it a bit, and it’s head contact; a yellow card. I’m obviously a little bit more old school. I just think, where else must he go?
“He finds the gap in between, and he wants to disrupt that kicking platform. But that’s a yellow card, down to 14 men, penalty, penalty, straight after half-time. And who’s controlling the game? Who’s got the territory? Scotland.”
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Townsend: “We knew not all the calls would be in our favour”
While Burger felt that the Springboks’ replacement in the 42-28 victory was harshly sanctioned, Townsend insinuated that there were several calls that went against his team and that was something they predicted would occur.
“I think we understood going into this game that not all the calls would be in our favour, and the players had to adjust to that, and they did for the main,” he said.
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“But I think we also have to look at ourselves, and our discipline at times just gave South Africa a couple of easy inroads into that second half, where we put so much effort into creating opportunities.”
The citing commissioner has since agreed with the officiating team’s decision, with Dixon facing no off-field punishment for his action and has once again been included on the bench for the Springboks’ clash against Wales in Durban this weekend.
