Controversy masks one-dimensional Springboks (smoke screen?)

 OPINION: One week of reflection allows for some perspective.

Sure, Romain Poite's actions and multiple decision-making blunders overshadowed the All Blacks victory against the Springboks last week. 

But to suggest the Frenchman favoured the All Blacks is pure hot air.

One look at Kieran Read's yellow card - a minor lineout infringement - should clear up any apparent bias. And, just quietly, there was no whinging about that howler.

More accurately, Poite was spooked by the occasion. A quality referee is near invisible. The officiator should never be the focal point.

Yes, the first yellow card given to Bismarck du Plessis was disgraceful. No doubt it marred the spectacle, and result. Why the technology wasn't used only Poite knows.

In the final wash-up, though, of what should have been a memorable battle between the world's two best rugby nations, it's also hard to shake the sense du Plessis got off lightly for his forceful forearm on Liam Messam.

In any other circumstances, the Boks hooker would have been suspended, on top of being binned.

Thrusting the solid, indeed, sharp end of your elbow into someone's throat is incredibly dangerous. It's thuggish tactics.

Don't be fooled, Bismarck knew what he was doing - there's a good distance between your hand and elbow, a clear divide between a legal fend with your palm and possibly breaking your opponent's collarbone or impairing their throat and, indeed, breathing ability. A two week ban would not have been unjust.

But, thanks to Poite, the judiciary was swayed towards leniency, rather than further sanction.

Incredibly, Messam has copped a constant stream of vitriol out of the frustrated Republic.

Not even his son was safe from the abuse. Apparently, Messam faked the injury to ham up the incident. Sorry folks. Get a grip. This is not the English Premiership.

So, naturally, the whole of South Africa is seeing red, baying for blood in the return clash at Ellis Park, which should, for the record, be a firecracker.

The All Blacks are the villains. Conspiracy theories abound. Somehow, Steve Hansen's men played a role in Poite's impaired vision and dodgy decisions. There. Shall. Be. Retribution on October 5.

Well, let the Boks stew. Let them play them revenge card. They'll need more than pure physicality to steamroll the All Blacks, even if Richie McCaw's knee doesn't recover in time.

While few definitive conclusions can be drawn, thanks once more to Poite, it was crystal clear if you watched the game more than once and took the emotion out of the equation, the Boks reverted to type.

They showed character to battle with 14-men but they were predictable.

For all the talk of a new-found attacking mentality they never attempted to be creative. Until this mentality shift is made the Boks will continue to play second fiddle.

Ambushing the All Blacks in Johannesburg won't work. There needs to be more than the bully approach.

Hansen and co can see it coming from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they arrive today.  

The All Blacks forward pack didn't get the credit they deserved for weathering the initial Bok onslaught. Du Plessis was a presence but he lacked support.

In many ways the home pack led the charge; embraced the combat. They'll be up for a repeat challenge. They, too, have a sour taste to spit out.     

At this level you need more than emotion. The Boks must look past their thirst for vengeance.

- © Fairfax NZ News

see the complaing about the ref was a cover-up operation so that people could not see the very poor preformance of the team.

thanks for this mr win, this is exactly what i have been saying about the whole poite incident, it has taken the spotlight of the very very VERY unimpressive Boks performance.

anyone who thinks the Boks are going to be fired up for ellis park are delusional, Boks know all too well that the only thing worse then poite was their kicking game, and if u rock up against the All Blacks at eden park with a 10 man rugby plan, u better not be firing blanks like the Boks were.

if u want to see fired up, take a look at messam, cos hes going to tear the Boks a new one as payback for comments on his boy.
u dont fuck with whanau, so thanks to that Bok fan clown for giving messam the extra motivation to be even pumped for an All Black/Bok test, something thats near impssoble to do considering playing for the All Blacks against our No1 rivals pumps us up to the max already.

and dont even get me started if king richie plays, it must have been pretty shameful watching all three Bok looseforwards get outplayed by one player, lolz lolz lolz, :oP

Sasuke San: yes I too have tried to help our SA posters lift the fog from their eyes but there is "No one is blinder than he who will not see".

IMO we have tried our best to help them Sasuke San :) but you can only do so much & our poor friends (and some who do not fall into this category) could be in for another disapointment. It is best if they face the facts, wipe their tears and ready themselves for Ellis Park, lol

I notice that not too many of them have given their predictions on this game, this means most of what we are hearing is cheast-beating. Come on guys, give your predictions on the game.

 Clevermike: yes I have you down for a 32-16 win for the All Blacks but you can change it once the selections are made.

@mikey,

regarding some of ur comments,,,

"I think that the All Blacks and in particular Retallick was previously penalized for taking out Etzebeth in the air in a line out and when Read did the same - he was a certain candidate for a yellow card."
read dosent take anyone out in the air, the yellow card was a sham like bizzys first yellow.
70:51 is when the lineout takes place and u can see read the entire time during the lineout and not once from when strauss throws the ball in and when poite blows the whistle, does read push anything let alone a player.

sharkbok suggested that the ref might be right cos players were in the way and u couldnt really tell, but as i have watched the game 5 times just for the enjoyment factor, plus that passage of play in particular about 50 times, it is indisputable, read shouldnt of been yellow carded cos he dosent push anything.

"However - that card was very late in the game and had no impact on the outcome of the game. "
100% correct, the yellow had no impact on the game, cos the Boks playing nearly 80mins of boring predictable 10 man rugby had sealed the Boks fate before they even set foot on eden park.
Noks know this too, thats why theyre going to lose in ellis park.

"I do believe that newspaper articles are for popular consumption and there is poor journalism all over the world. They would use minor incidents - for example nutcases like the idiots attacking Messam's son - as gospel to create a picture of general conduct and approach by local fans - it is not anywhere near the truth."
thats typically a journos job, to fan the flames of controversy, cos it means more $$$$
wardaddy and myself have come out though and said that it was only a few people and the rest of the Bok fans dont get tagged along with those despicable clowns, they are in the clear clear minority.

but the fans on that crybaby facebook page on the other hand, well tahts a pretty fair refelection of the average Bok fan, very babay waah waah.
its also a good reflection of the Bok fans here, with only a small small minority (cough cough 3 bloggers) who arent tagged with that sniff sniff lot.

"In the meantime Messam should be given an Oscar or his sterling performance after the Bismarck incident. He played for 30 minutes after the incident without showing any signs of distress."
even u cant really believe this. anyone whose copped an elbow to throat can testify just how bad that really is.
im sure u dont subscribe to the theory that if anyone is injured and down for a certain time but then get back up to play on, can only mean he was feinging his discomfort??? cos if u do, then u might want to look in SA backyard before evebn considering looking elsewhere.

bizzy should have gotten a minimum yellow card for striking messam in the throat with his elbow, it was reckless more then intentional, but a red card would have also been justified IMO, afterall u can kill a man by crushing his windpipe no worries.

" De Villiers should take that as an example - if Nonu attacks him again fall down and stay down for treatment - creating an impression of serious injury and if the ref was Poite Nonu would be doomed. After a send-off get up and play on as if nothing has happened."
if he dosent know how to that, then he should just ask habana and le roux, those two are nortorious for their oscar nominated injuries, especially le roux.
every country has these sad type of players, btu habana and le roux are amongst the worst with le roux IMO, willies so bad he should be nick named the white drogba, lolz, :oP

@mikey,

like bizzys first yellow, it was justa  plain bad call, the main difference is bizzys 2nd yellow shone the spotlight even brighter on bizzys first yellow and that was unfortunate, cos it saw him get red carded.

on another thread i sugeested that maybe all possible card offences be discussed by allthe officials on the day in a group meeting.

thats the ref, the two touchies and the TMO all putting in their two cents worth for 8cents worth of judical logic and what ever the majority agrees on is the ruling.

should there be a tie 2 v 2, then a benefit of the doubt is given to the offending player with a stern warning and caution.

this will help leviate the main ref from crazy pressure as the collective will be held more responsible, blame all 4 instead of one.

this of course means that the TMO needs to be neutral and i know they have been in the RC/4nats, but they havent always been that way and im talking as early as last year if memory serves me correctly.

Any talk of a conspiracy is rubbish......there is no conspiracy against any team, however, I do believe referees are influecned by the crowd and though I don't have an issue with a Ref making a mistake, I do take issue when he stuffs up a game to the point where the result of the game is affected. I also  take issue with Refs who are serial offenders.

Mickey, I concur with you that some selections are poor but I'm going to wait till after the game before I venture an opinion...let's not forget how those very same selections put egg on our faces after the Wallaby test.