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‘How does this happen?’ – Victor Matfield and Nick Mallett baffled by vital referee calls that went against the Springboks Victor Matfield and Nick Mallett have rued inconsistent officiating decisions during the first Test match between the Springboks and All Blacks. The pair agree that Dave Rennie’s side were deserved winners at Ellis Park in the series opener of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, as Rassie Erasmus’ charges were wasteful in possession and spoiled multiple opportunities. However, they believe that referee Matthew Carley was inconsistent in his rulings, identifying three examples in particular. One of the most contentious decisions for Matfield was Carley’s call to penalise loosehead prop Gerhard Steenekamp for walking around in the scrum. It was South Africa’s feed into the set-piece, and Erasmus’ side had dominated that facet of the game until that point. Game-breaker penalty at scrum time The Boks had twice turned down the opportunity to take the three points, opting for a scrum instead, and on the third set, it was the All Blacks who were rewarded with the penalty. “Five yards out, a vital part of the game, 16-12,” Mallett remarked on SuperSport’s Final Whistle Presents Side Entry show. Matfield added: “This was so important in the game; this was a game-breaker. We were dominating in the scrum; we don’t take the three points, they get away, and afterwards, they go and score.” The duo would return to the debate around the scrum penalties later in the show, but it was what transpired thereafter that Mallett believed to be a turning point in the game. New Zealand worked their way up the pitch in the passages of play that ensued before the Springboks finally got possession of the ball again inside their 22. There, Grant Williams attempted a clearance from the base of the ruck but was charged down by Fabian Holland, who managed to regather the ball and score the try. Fabian Holland and Eben Etzebeth’s chargedowns At the start of the game, a similar incident occurred with Eben Etzebeth charging down one of Cam Rogiard’s kicks; however, the Springboks veteran was penalised for being offside. Mallett believes that the two incidents should have both been penalised. “First of all, we’ve got to say we’re not looking for excuses; we lost this game,” the former Springboks boss explained. “But when you get a game that goes against you, and you’re making your own mistakes, often you also get calls that go against you. “Right at the beginning of the game, Etzebeth charged the ball down. There’s the offside line; he’s well ahead of the offside line. There’s a player, an All Black player, on the ground part of the ruck, and we’ll show the Springbok offside; it’s called; it’s exactly the same. Victor Matfield: I’m not worried about the Springboks; we dominated the All Blacks “The ref says that’s not offside, play on, and he scores a try. At the beginning, there’s Etzebeth; I thought he was offside, but I also thought that Holland was offside too. Have a look here: there is a South African player lying on the ground, and there you see Etzebeth is in front of the player on the ground; he is offside. So, two situations where I thought both players were offside and it should have been called back. One is let play on, and the other is a penalty against South Africa. “So those are calls that just go against you when things go badly, and that charge-down – you talk about the scrum as being a turning point; I thought that was also a turning point.” Dan Carter reveals what ‘rare talent’ Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu needs to do to become ‘world-class’ Matfield baffled by scrum decision Matfield then zoned in on the scrum that occurred before Holland’s try, stating that the Springboks only came around in the way they did because that’s the direction the All Blacks’ scrum went when they were under pressure. “It was from the scrum where we could get the lead; we didn’t, and then that happened,” the 2007 World Cup winner said. “We said before, if we get that first scrum, we go for it, then they’re done in the series, and we got it. The first five scrums were just unbelievable. “After five scrums, this happened, and if you look at that, he has penalised us here for walking around. Look at the angle of the loosehead of New Zealand. If you get that angle, how can you not walk around because that prop just went on the angle? “Wilco Louw was straight. We can see it; the pressure is there, and the All Blacks step left and then, of course, the Boks will follow. What I can’t understand is that we’ve dominated the scrums, we’ve got five scrum penalties in a row, and we are going forward. Rassie Erasmus makes ‘different’ Springboks team admission and explains Handre Pollard selection “Now it’s the same way where quite a few calls go against us, another one against us.” Mallett added that the scrums are a difficult part of the game to officiate but used another example where the Springboks did get a penalty, saying that he couldn’t see the difference between that call and the one that went against the hosts. “It’s easy when they collapse. When a guy pancakes, then it’s easy. But when one team walks around, he happened to be on the side where the Springboks had to go left because their guy had gone left,” he said. “What was different about that from the one under the poles? I didn’t see any difference. He continued: “No, it’s a very, very big call. Five metre scrum under the posts. Admittedly, we took three scrums, didn’t we? We got two penalties. We went back to a scrum. Perhaps this referee just said, ‘We’re not going to have the scrum all the time.'” “Unfortunately, that scrum was a big turning point,” Matfield concluded, with fellow former Springbok Owen Nkumane adding: “Same actions, different call. That’s all we say. We’re not talking about the referee.” Marco van Staden’s yellow card while Luke Jacobson escapes punishment Shifting focus away from the scrums, Matfield took issue with Marco van Staden’s yellow card late in the second half after All Blacks flanker Luke Jacobson escaped sanction for a similar incident when the Springboks were in possession. “If we look at what happened to Marco van Staden just before that, there was an incident with Cobus Reinach,” he said as he reviewed Jacobson’s actions. “It’s a brilliant tackle from the All Blacks on Pieter-Steph du Toit, but there is the gates and Jasper Wiese is next to the ruck. Firstly, he can’t be played; Jacobson takes him out. Outside, and then he plays the scrum-half. “If you counter-ruck, the one thing you’re not allowed to do is play the scrum-half. Here the referee again just says ‘play on’. He doesn’t do anything. Everyone stops because even they think it’s a penalty. “Look at that arm; he’s not allowed to play the nine. Firstly, he’s not allowed to hit Jasper Wiese; secondly, he’s coming from the side because he’s not through the gate, and he’s hitting our nine. Nothing, no penalty. How can that not be a penalty?” He then moved on to Van Staden’s sin-binning: “Jesse Kriel is tackled by Damian McKenzie, who should roll away. Jesse Kriel tries to place the ball, but the tackler is lying on the completely wrong side of the tackle. “He’s not allowed to be there. Remember, stealers can’t steal if the tackler is still there. There again, there are the lines through the gate. Marco van Staden is not there, but he’s behind the last man’s feet. Rassie Erasmus: ‘I will say it as it is, the Bomb Squad experiment backfired’ “The nine picks the ball up, same as Cobus Reinach; he hits him, and Marco gets a yellow card. What’s the difference? We made 21 handling errors, but there were calls that put us under pressure, and that led to errors.” Mallett concluded the section of the show focusing on the officiating team’s decisions by again stating the All Blacks deserved to win but caveated it by saying that the Springboks were aided by the referee. Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust. “We started out by saying, right from the start, New Zealand deserved to win. We weren’t good enough with our attack to take our opportunities,” he said. “However, when things are going against you, you get these calls, and it’s just these calls that can actually put the knife in. Had they got the yellow card, had Jacobson got a yellow card, it’s very different. We play against 14 of them; there’s 20 minutes to go. We’re 19-16; we’re well in the game there.”