What a farce!
Rolland's words to Gethin Jenkins and Frans Malherbe were effectively: "If it goes down again on your side then you'll both be off and we'll bring on two new props".
So then Malherbe is subbed and the Springboks bring on Coenie Oosthuizen, a "new" prop and in a truly ridiculous situation, Rolland sends Coenie off, shortly after he threatened to resolve the situation by bringing on "new" props.
It got even sillier after that. "Have you got another prop?" Rolland asks the Springboks. "Yes," says Jean de Villiers, ". . . the same guy you sent off!".
As it turns out, the Springboks did actually have Gurthro to come but it wasn't necessary because Rolland's stupid decision to give both props a final warning meant that the Welsh had run out of props and we were reduced to uncontested scrums all because the ref didn't have a clue how to manage the collapsing scrums.
I'm not only blaming Rolland . . . this is an ongoing problem where the refs allow one reset and then, when the scrum collapses again, they have a quick thumbsuck and penalize the team less likely to cause controversy . . . but his earlier decision to threaten both props with yellow cards was short-sighted and led to one of the most ridiculous yellow cards I've ever seen.
The Springbok missed tackles in the first 10 minutes were downright embarrassing but they did get their defence sorted out to some extent after that and I'm afraid to say, a lot of that was due to Morne Steyn going off because at one point he had about as many missed tackles as minutes played.
Unfortunately, I think this game is going to be remembered for poor refereeing decisions rather than the quality of the rugby . . . but well done Bokke!
