Maybe the only decision Luke Pearce actually got wrong

There was maybe one decision that Luke Pearce got wrong during the Springboks dismal loss to the mighty All Blacks yesterday in Jo’burg.

Of course, the Boks fans – who always blame the ref after every loss like some kind of primordial reflex – are blaming the brave Englishman for everything that went wrong for them yesterday. That goes without saying of course.

The Bok fans never take a loss on the chin, despite many of them having two of them.

That said, we think Luke Pearce did get this call wrong, as All Blacks hero Sam Whitelock clearly does the rip the ball from Ox Nche. We thought Luke Pearce was excellent but this call needs a second look.

TAS Analytics, purveyor of things Springbok on Youtube – writes: “This was another incident in the Springboks vs All Blacks game in the Rugby Championship that was just dealt with poorly by Luke Pearce. The ball gets ripped by the New Zealand defender, yet the ref says it was knocked on by South Africa.”

The Boks win the ball back and Lukhanyo Am ends up dotting the ball down, only for Pearse to call it back for an apparent knock-on.

“Then the replays shows and it clearly shows the ball being ripped by the New Zealand defender which meant it should never have been a knock on and it should’ve been play on,” writes TAS. “That was a try-scoring opportunity taken away from South Africa. The thing that frustrates me is that Luke Pearce was so confident and arrogant about his decision, that he refused to check it and he was clearly wrong as the replays showed.”

We’ve got to agree with TAS on this one, although not about the arrogant part.