The Springboks are to approach World Rugby Refereeing High Performance Manager Joel Jutge to bring some clarity on some of the calls made against them at the scrums in the 37-25 loss to the Pumas in Durban at the weekend.
The Boks were repeatedly penalised by referee Romain Poite at scrum time, and scrum coach Pieter de Villiers admitted that he was confused by most of the calls. Certainly it looked from the sidelines that it was Argentine loosehead Marcos Ayerza, and not the South African tighthead Vincent Koch, that was scrumming illegally. (Now Beeno without even seeing the game had the nous to suspect foul play rather than dumping all over Koch and co!)
Although the Bok management have stayed consistent with their post-match line that they will not look for excuses for an allround performance that was clearly off par and a cause for concern, the scrumming calls played a big part in preventing the Boks from being able to establish any sort of platform and physical parity against their opponents.
“It was a very frustrating day for us, and I was confused about the calls that were being made,” said De Villiers.
“We need to get some clarity on some calls, and we will talk to Joel Jutge about it. Not one of our scrums went to completion, so it was difficult to get a technical note on our scrumming. I thought Vincent did really well in his first scrum but then the call went against us and after that it was a struggle.”
It was Koch’s first experience of playing against a northern hemisphere opponent in the sense that Ayerza plays his club rugby in Europe, and De Villiers left no doubt he felt that Ayerza’s bind was illegal.
“Vincent was up against a very experienced prop from the northern hemisphere who is well schooled and versed in the dark art of scrum manipulation. We need to work on that, and Vincent is very keen to have another crack at it as well.”
It seems likely the Boks who played in Durban might get a chance to atone in the international friendly against the Pumas in Buenos Aires on Saturday, and it appears De Villiers is backing Koch to set the record straight. As it was clear the refereeing calls were going to continue to go against him, Koch was replaced for the second half at Kings Park.
“That game would have been an invaluable experience for Vincent and while I am not making the selections I do think it would be fair to get a chance to atone and put the record straight. The guys who came on in the second half did well too, and I thought we were the better scrum by the end, but unfortunately penalties and free kicks kept going against us so we couldn’t get any momentum.”
De Villiers said the short turn-around period between the two games would make getting it right before Buenos Aires a challenging proposition, but he was confident that it could be managed.
“Apart from the confusion over the calls that went against us, we also just didn’t pitch physically, and we have to get that right. We are not known as a team that doesn’t pitch physically and on Saturday we need to pitch. We were going to rotate selections for this game but now I think, given the last result, there are players who need to show us that last week was an aberration and that they can play at the highest level.”
Its amazing how guys like bissie who were outstanding against Oz and Nz are now no good.
Man its a laugh a minute here. Ou card cant see Allende's talent and Lambie is totally useless. Snapster says Labbers at 107 kg is to small but wee kolisi at 103/5 kg is fine. Moz not appreciating Lood and ou maaaikie not thinking Burger is any good. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
I do hope all the oaks get a grip soon.
