Initially I thought that Bismaark was offside but their was no ruck so does not seem he could have been offside.
It does look a little like a shoulder charge, probably just because he dived before he made the tackle.
The tackle was just below the shoulder so it could not have been high, which was the calling of the referee.
Would be easier to see in slow motion.
It's sickening that the focus is on the Ref and his decisions about Bismark. The All Black coach says the same. His take on it is:
"...the first yellow was probably not right, but denied that it had taken away from the contest..." as he "...believes that Du Plessis deserved a red on its own for the second infringement, where he received his second yellow for an elbow that hit Liam Messam on the chest and moved upwards towards his neck in the collision".
For the full article:
http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/RugbyChampionship/Boks-werent-robbed-Hansen-20130914
We are probably going to hear about this for the next 3 weeks when the All Blacks play the Boks again. Man that is going to be an even more intense game.
On Bok performance (forgetting the ref) the player ratings showed some poor peformances & I will be interested in the stats on tackeles, etc.
All Blacks had some younger players step up and do well. For a start we had our 3rd string 10 play.
Time will put this game in perspective.
