The Springboks are seeing red after a spate of cards has left the team questioning whether they are being treated fairly by officials, assistant coach Mzwandile Stick says.
Red cards to locks Franco Mostert (against Italy) and Lood de Jager (France) have become hot topics in world rugby as the Boks look to end a losing streak at the Aviva Stadium against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.
“We’re just disappointed with how things are,” Stick said. “At the moment, week after week, we’re losing players, and it’s sad that everyone was looking forward to the Italy game, and for it to turn out the way it did is just disappointing.
“If you look at Franco Mostert’s actions, and even those of Lood de Jager the previous week, they’ve done everything by the book. The only mistake is that maybe the contact was high and near the head, but I don’t understand how that becomes a permanent [red card].
“From our side as coaches, we still need to work hard. We can see these guys are nice and tall, and they try to do everything by the book, but because rugby is a physical game, we don’t always get it perfect.
“But for them to say the tackle was never legal is disappointing.”
Stick said he would have to choose his words carefully when discussing disciplinary issues.
“I don’t want to say things and then also get banned like Rassie [Erasmus] in the past,” he said. “But once again, if you look at the last four red cards, we had players like Makazole Mapimpi suspended and not on tour at the moment.
“That guy has 47 Test caps, and it would’ve been an opportunity for him to get to 50, and Jan-Hendrik Wessels, a youngster, misses out with suspension.
“Looking at the Fiji-France game and the cleanouts that were there, and the same with Ireland-Australia, there were situations that were even worse than what those guys have been suspended for.
“They are suspended, but other players will come back again this week. Surely somewhere, somehow, this is not fair. I don’t think we deserve this as a team. Are we treated fairly? I don’t think so.”
Bok coach Rassie Erasmus has called for better clarity around head-contact decisions after Mostert was sent off.
“I’m not saying the referee made the wrong call, but I definitely saw a lot of other shots in the game where the first tackle he took was right against the head,” he said.
“It’s tough. I’m not saying anybody was wrong; I just thought the balance on calling the headshots wasn’t as equal.
“Losing two five-locks in two games for not going lower than they can is tough to understand, and I’m not saying anyone is wrong by that.
“We don’t know how to coach guys any differently — we’re really in a fix. For a guy 2m tall and a guy who’s 2.06m, it’s tough to go lower than a guy on his knees.”
∗ Mostert will be free to play against Ireland on Saturday after his red card against Italy was dismissed and expunged from his disciplinary record.
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