International Rugby

[paul_e]

The ref gave SA some crucial decisions or failed to see SA infringement.

The big one was not giving the ginger prop a yellow just before he got subbed.

[AV84]

The ref gave SA some crucial decisions or failed to see SA infringement.

Was it the last penalty they scored from that should have gone the other way, or certainly been looked at a bit closer. South Africa are annoyingly good at working the ref and playing very close to the edge. Faff firing the ball at the French players bum instead of to LeRoux for the drop goal seemed stupid at the time, but they ate up about 6 minutes after it with scrums.

[PaulWinch again]

Can't believe no Northern hemisphere teams made the SF. All Southern hemisphere, not a single Northern one, nobody to root for at all.

Really.

There is obviously a joke here but I can’t figure it out.

Indeed.

[PeterWithesShin]

Oh dear what a shame.

[paul_e]

The ref gave SA some crucial decisions or failed to see SA infringement.

Was it the last penalty they scored from that should have gone the other way, or certainly been looked at a bit closer. South Africa are annoyingly good at working the ref and playing very close to the edge. Faff firing the ball at the French players bum instead of to LeRoux for the drop goal seemed stupid at the time, but they ate up about 6 minutes after it with scrums.

Yep, the guy clearly put his hand on the floor which means he shouldn't have been allowed to handle the ball. There were a few similar things that the ref missed.

[UK Redsox]

You’re allowed to briefly touch the floor, but the decision could have gone against him

[Jon Crofts]

Let’s not get all Warren Gatland over it eh?

[Brazilian Villain]

England the only unbeaten team left in the tournament, got to be favourites to win it now.

[PaulWinch again]

Yep very clearly the case…..Although for all the grumbling about the draw, which is a bit daft but has been understood for a long time, it shows winning the World Cup as favourites is hard. Lots of teams find it incredibly difficult to get over that hurdle.

[Monty]

6 points away from being an unforgettable World Cup, but two alltimers end with the old order scraping through. It's a shame.

[nigel]

Might have a cheeky bet on all 4 Northern Hemisphere teams going through.

Quite confident of England and Wales going through
Ireland seem to have New Zealand’s number
France, with home advantage, hopefully dump the Boks

Good job I’m not a betting man 😂

[nigel]

The ref gave SA some crucial decisions or failed to see SA infringement.

Agree, thought he was very lenient
I was surprised Ezibeth yellow wasn’t upgraded, but since Curry’s red they seemed to have looked at that kind of thing differently

[taylorsworkrate]

The ref gave SA some crucial decisions or failed to see SA infringement.

Was it the last penalty they scored from that should have gone the other way, or certainly been looked at a bit closer. South Africa are annoyingly good at working the ref and playing very close to the edge. Faff firing the ball at the French players bum instead of to LeRoux for the drop goal seemed stupid at the time, but they ate up about 6 minutes after it with scrums.

Its infuriating as a neutral seeing how much time comes off the clock at scrums. Setting them up and them collapsing takes time out the game. I still don't understand in a sport where the clock can stop why this is just simply allowed to happen. It's the same with penalty kicks and conversions. Why are players given an absolute age to kick them with the clock still running?

[paul_e]

You’re allowed to briefly touch the floor, but the decision could have gone against him

The law on this one is open to interpretation because it simply says that to be able to compete for the ball with their hands the first player arriving at the ruck must 'stay on their feet'. For me the 'spirit' of the law is that your hands touching the floor as you play the ball is fine but balancing yourself or supporting your weight shouldn't be. More specifically, and to give a clear dividing line, I was told when the law changed a few years back that refs in Greater Bham would be officiating as "palm or knuckles on the floor or prolonged fingertips on the floor" would be considered as off feet and revert you back to normal ruck laws.

On that basis I think he's very lucky not to have been called up on it.

I still think the lack of a yellow for Kitshoff was the bigger call, just like Porter the day before he could've gone for repeated offences in the scrum but even without that the penalty at the ruck just before he was subbed was a definite yellow for me and I can't work out how the officials saw it any differently.

The ref was also very lenient in letting SA come round the side 3-4 times in the final passage of play. The ref called them out and they did back off but it was a clear tactic to slow down the French play and the ref was a little naive in letting it happen so many times without calling the penalty. There were a few other niggly ones as well where the ref seemed be willing to give SA the benefit of the doubt in terms of where they entered the ruck or how fast they were in rolling away/releasing the player. It's not that the individual actions are necessarily penalties but so many of them back-to-back is a clear tactic to disrupt play and time waste and I think, looked at more broadly, there was enough there that the ref should've bene giving warnings and then given the penalty when it carried on.

He let them waste a lot of time at the scrums in the last 5minutes or so as well, with one being a pretty clear case of SA backing off the hitto bring France slightly further forward so the whole thing was out of balance and got reset, taking a minute off the clock.

[nigel]

Oooh, controversial…
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/cheslin-kolbe-charge-down-block-south-africa-rugby-b2431542.html