Victor Matfield: Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Tadhg Beirne incidents show those in charge are ‘failing the game’

Springboks legend Victor Matfield has hit out at a couple of the recent disciplinary decisions and insists that the sport is being ‘failed’ by those in charge.

There was controversy at the weekend when Tadhg Beirne was handed a 20-minute red card after a collision with All Blacks fly-half Beauden Barrett.

Beirne’s shoulder connected with Barrett’s head after the Irishman failed to make an attempted tackle.

However, many felt that the back five forward had little time to react after an apparent forward pass from Cam Roigard, while he seemed to be absorbing the contact.

Springboks star’s ban

It was announced late on Tuesday that the Ireland star’s red card had been rescinded, which will no doubt please Matfield, but his countryman, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, was not so fortunate.

Unlike the Beirne incident, Wessels was not punished on the field, but he was later suspended for eight weeks – reduced from nine – for grabbing the testicles of Connacht’s Josh Murphy during a United Rugby Championship encounter.

There was no additional video evidence brought forward to support the claim, though, with the Springboks front-rower primarily banned on the testimonies of Murphy and the citing commissioner.

“Going away from this [Ireland-All Blacks] game and into disciplinary hearings, what’s happening with Jan-Hendrik Wessels at the moment,” Matfield said on the Rivals podcast.

“A player punched him in the game, he claims he grabbed him in a certain place, but there’s no evidence at all. He gets a nine-week ban, they go and appeal and he gets eight weeks without any evidence.

“How can that work in any court of law… anything? I just think whoever’s running the referees, whoever’s running the judicial process is failing the game at the moment.”

Exclusive: Full details emerge of Jan-Hendrik Wessels’ ban and Josh Murphy’s role in it

World Rugby’s judicial panel chair, who has the responsibility over that process, is currently Christopher Quinlan KC, coincidentally the person who headed the hearing into Beirne’s red card.

Meanwhile, Joel Jutge is in charge of the refereeing side of it and Matfield has issues with both, particularly following the Ireland v All Blacks clash.

Officiating ‘killed the momentum’

“It’s very difficult for the teams to perform when it’s stop-start like that. That first half almost took an hour,” he said.

“There was a break for the red card, they couldn’t get the big screen on, so they ran to the side to make the decision.

“Ireland gets a penalty, Jack Crowley goes over the mark, doesn’t kick the ball out, so it’s actually advantage for New Zealand but he calls him back to kick it again – it’s just crazy.

“We want to get momentum into the game, we want to get speed into the game and I thought the officiating just killed it.”

READ MORE: Ireland: Tadhg Beirne learns disciplinary fate after controversial sending off