Point number 1….Erasmus justifies the Water Carrier….because he’s not head coach. A technicality, he is clearly the head coach. Hiding behind this technicality is avoiding the spirit of the rule. In cricket if the bowler ran out the the non striker without warning him, we would all be up in arms. This kind of behavior exhibited means nothing can be left to good sportsmanship.
Point number 2….Berry was sent the clips, because those would influence team selection. But there was no feedback till Tuesday. Big deal it’s apparently the convention. So one asks, whose selection was at stake. The real point is he wasn’t ‘convinced with the clarity’.
Point number 3….the call for a yellow card on the kick. The ‘shoulder charge’. This was a case where Curry was trying to make the tackle before Faf kicked, realized at the last second he was too late and never carried through with the tackle. This was not a ‘charge’ a head on tackle. This was contact after the kick which happens all the time…by the time he realized he was too late he couldn’t pull out and bouncing off him rather than tackling him at that point was less dangerous. Penalty no card the right decision,
Point 3 Curry entering from the side. Erasmus is right about this, one of many breakdown calls that wasn’t made.
Point number 4 …the foul play call. Reversing a call for foul play is only done when it’s dangerous. Berry is right it’s custom as so much Rugby reffing is, not everything is in the rule book.
Point 5…the tackle of 21 on Allende….this was a restraining over the shoulder tackle and down the chest….it never curls round the neck….he was actually trying to dislodge the ball, totally different from the Bongi tackle he shows as the base case, where Bongi’s arm does curl round the neck with force.
Point 6….the Watson tip tackle. This in my view was a clear card, probably red. This was the big reffing mistake of the game, but the onus here has to be on the video ref who had the opportunity to view and clearly call it. Big mistake from Berry….but no bigger than the much more dangerous Kolbe submarine run under Murray, which was more clearly a red.
Point 7….the Duhan lift, actually follows what looks like a no arms tackle by Am. And it happened simultaneously with the ruck being formed. These are minor fragments of time. At no time was the player tipped….marginal at best.
Point 8 …the advantage call. Erasmus makes a big point about time, but it’s really a question of substantive advantage. The Lions gained some territory but never broke the defence. Willie made a clean break and was about to make a dangerous offload when he lost the ball. Berry called it just before he lost the ball. Unfortunate timing, but to imply intent is paranoid. Which much of this tape is….paranoid.
Point 9….the hold in penalty against Kwagga. Erasmus claims Kwagga is held in by Lawes leg. But actually you see no attempt by Kwagga to move, he remains flat and motionless. The Lion who is trapped pushes up on his one arm to get out and the ball is pushed into him. Once again Berry is right Erasmus is wrong. The few subsequent Lions not rolling away clips were marginal, mitigated by the fact that the ball was available and not held in by the players in question..
Point 10 The Curry in from the side call with ruck formed, possibly wrong but could only be established by a video review. Refs can’t see these things in the fragments of time they occur….and they go both ways. Unless we want endless layering these calls have to be made real time.
Point 11 The Itoje playing through the ruck and Ox Niche penalty….you will see here Kwagga comes in totally from the side, something he complains about time and again.
Point 12 The Itoje steal ….Erasmus seems to have a problem with him ‘cynically’ pushing the ball to the ground when it’s in both players hands. He finally rips it off Faf. To take a page out of the Erasmus book I doubt there is anything in the laws that says a steal can’t be affected by pushing down.
Point 13….the Eben non steal Berry coaches Eben off the ball when he fails to make the steal and is off his feet. No penalty…not sure what Erasmus has a problem with.
Point 14…the AR offside call on Allende. From the still Berry threw his AR under the bus apparently. But the ball hasn’t been passed and Allende is close to the offside. By the time he makes the pass it wa quite possible he was offside.
Point15….Lions player not freezing after the kick….yes technically right, but the player was nowhere near the chase, it was a long flat kick in any case. Embarrassing rom Erasmus.
Point 16 … The Elstadt tackling the player with his knee on the deck. He gives 2 examples of calling it right…then claims Itoje did this to Elstadt in the last minute. But the strip occurred ‘ in the process’ of Elstadt going down. His knee may have hit a fraction of a second before the ball popped out…but way too close to call in real time.
Point 17….the knock on to Duhan van der Merwe, called as a scrum, not a penalty. Erasmus appears to be right on this one, but clearly Berry didn’t concede the point or Erasmus would have reported it…I’d like to hear Berry’s view.
Point 18 the Sia Kolisi disrespect…the problem here is Sia doesn’t look Berry in the face and make his point. His body language is not assertive and I’m sure his verbal communication is also not crisp. When Berry makes a little joke Erasmus interprets that he is laughing at Kolisi…I doubt it.
Point 19…the Kolbe take in the air. Erasmus says has 3 angles of this but shows none. Perhaps because the Lions player is also locked onto the ball and in trying to secure it pulls Kolbe into touch. Vunipola picking up Kolbe was disrespectful, but I have never seen it penalized.
Point 20 … the Curry scrumming onto Ox occurred because he pivoted inside.. .the lift looked dangerous but is there a law, Erasmus’ gold standard, that says you can’t lift an opponent. I doubt it.
And that’s about it apart from another vigorous defence of having the Director of South African Rugby act as a water boy. I may have missed a few points it was so repetitive. But that’s the bulk of it.
