South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has taken to Twitter to highlight questionable refereeing calls in the Springboks’ 22-17 first Test defeat to the British and Irish Lions last weekend.
Erasmus first retweeted a more-than-a-minute-long video showing how the Boks were outdone by the whistle of Australian Nic Berry.
Erasmus captioned the video, shared to his account by Twitter user Jaco Johan, with: “Thanks. This is rugby – sometimes calls go for you and other times they dont.”
Thanks. This is rugby - sometimes calls go for you and other times they dont https://t.co/ONZp0uoWJF
— Rassie Erasmus (@RassieRugby) July 25, 2021
The video kicks off with a late hit on Bok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, is followed by Hamish Watson’s tip tackle on Willie le Roux which was a penalty only.
It also shows penalty advantage given to the Boks of eight seconds, while the Lions got 20 seconds and also a Bok penalised for not rolling away, while Berry says “it’s fine” when a Lions player fails to do the same.
Bearing in mind that the hosts also had two tries disallowed on the day, Erasmus later added another video which he captioned: “Cheslin is obviously played in the air and clearly not direct into touch!!
“More importantly for youngsters watching this clip!!!! Please never move or touch an injured player on the ground... Leave this to the medics.”
Cheslin is obviously played in the air and clearly not direct into touch!!More importantly for youngsters watching this clip!!!! Please never move or touch an injured player on the ground, its reckless and dangerous! Leave this to the 🏥 🙏🏼@WorldRugby @Springboks @lionsofficial pic.twitter.com/lEcp5L4PBf
— Rassie Erasmus (@RassieRugby) July 26, 2021
The Boks will be hoping for better luck when the two sides lock horns in the second Test in the Mother City on Saturday.
Meanwhile, SA Rugby yesterday announced that the Boks’ first two games of this year’s Rugby Championship against Argentina on August 14 and 21 will both be hosted at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.