Ex All Black highlights ‘inconsistency’ with Bok rucking and Barrett red card
After the All Blacks suffered the biggest loss in their history at the hands of South Africa on Friday at Twickenham, many would have thought that this was the perfect opportunity for fans and pundits to start complaining about how the losers were treated unfairly by the referee Matthew Carley.
But no, former All Black turned pundit Jeff Wilson was clearly not concerned how some of the decisions in London might or might not have had a bearing on the result, rather he was championing consistent refereeing this week on The Breakdown in New Zealand. It was all in the name of fair refereeing that he highlighted incidents where various Springboks made contact with the head of hooker Dane Coles at a ruck.
Some might think that this was Willson showing where the All Blacks, and Scott Barrett in particular, were treated unfairly compared to the Springboks, but there was no bitterness involved at all. None. Instead, this was solely done to end inconsistency in refereeing.
“I’ll show you a couple of clean outs from the Springboks in this game,” Wilson said. “And if you’re talking about moments, significant moments in the game, how close were they? Look here, watch Dane Coles on the ball- player off the ground. Watch another one here, on the back on Dane Coles’ head on the clean out, two guys going to ground. Now if Dane Coles stays down, goes like Duane Vermeulen and hits a knee. ‘Can I have look at that please? OK, shoulder on the back of the neck.’ What’s the outcome on that? And that’s every collision. So for me, the margins you’re talking about and some of the frustrations that we’re going to have if we see inconsistency.
“Now I don’t want to take anything away from a dominant South African performance, it was a demolition. But when you’re up 15 on 14 and you’re a Springbok team which were comfortable to have seven forwards on their bench, we knew that they were coming and that numerical advantage was always going to take its toll.”
Watch here:
I’ve been preaching about this since the introduction of “Head Contact” Laws were implemented.
Players will stay down & take a knee to get the TMO into the game.
French winger (11) on Sunday
Malcom Marx on Friday
Full Ep: https://t.co/NdSTJU4Aja pic.twitter.com/hpa7vC8MmS
— RHABULA ☕️🐻 | #RWC2023 (@Rugby_Scoop) August 28, 2023
