Springboks lodge complaint to World Rugby over ‘bizarre’ scrums after ‘ideally timed’ Wallabies’ injuries
SA Rugby have reportedly made a formal request to World Rugby to investigate Australia's injuries.
SA Rugby have reportedly made a formal request to World Rugby to investigate Australia’s injuries that led to uncontested scrums in the Rugby Championship.
The clash between the Springboks and Wallabies in Perth was marred by uncontested scrums after Australia lost both their loosehead props – Angus Bell and James Slipper to injury – with Allan Alaalatoa also failing to play beyond half-time.
Bell started the match against the Boks and featured the entire first half but did not return after the break due to a reported HIA while Slipper suffered a head knock and was removed from the match too.
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Slipper’s removal occurred just a minute after Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus turned to his bench bringing on Rugby World Cup winners Ox Nche and Malcolm Marx for rookies Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Johan Grobbelaar, respectively.
Due to the fact that Australia lost both of their loosehead props, the match officials deemed that it was no longer safe to continue with contested scrums and ordered that they be uncontested for the remainder of the match – effectively nullifying a clear strength of the Springboks ‘Bomb Squad’ from the week before.
After the match, Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt stated that it was ‘one of the most bizarre games’ he had ever been involved in.
“It’s probably one of the most bizarre games I’ve ever been involved in,” he said. “In over 100 Test matches that I’ve been involved in, I’ve never had a situation like that before.”
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Alaalatoa and Bell both featured for Australia against Argentina this past weekend while Slipper was rested.
World Rugby has laws in place to penalise teams for creating a situation where uncontested scrums are necessary but they do not come into play when HIAs [Head Injury Assessements] come into play therefore Australia were able to continue the match with 14 men.
This has reportedly led the Springboks to be sceptical over the validity of the Wallabies players’ injuries and according to South African newspaper Rapport, they have made formal requests for what transpired to be investigated.
The report states that the Springboks camp reviewed what occurred and decided to officially make the request through SA Rugby to World Rugby.
It further states that Australia will now have to submit medical records to prove that all three players did have head injuries to prove their innocence in the matter with SA Rugby effectively suggesting that it was a ploy.
While World Rugby do have independent doctors at all international matches to review head injury cases, the report states that it is the home union that appoints that doctor.
World Rugby, Rugby Australia and SANZAAR did not respond to Rapport’s request for comment.
World Rugby did state they were aware of the incident with a source from within the governing body saying: “SA Rugby has been asked for a submission and the working group will consider it together with any other submissions.”
Springboks reaction
Injured Springboks lock Lood de Jager was another who found the events rather suspicious and questioned the timing of the Wallabies’ injuries.
“It’s a difficult one with them going off for concussion,” he said on The Verdict podcast.
“There’s a certain protocol that it’s 12 days before you can play again if you go off the field with concussion and maybe that’s why they didn’t do it last week because they wouldn’t have guys available for the next game but now with the week break before the next Test maybe they thought now is the time to do it.
“I don’t know because it’s so difficult to prove that they actually did it but I did just think the timing was ideal if it was the case.”
