Gatland verdict on Kolbe yellow and what irked him in the 2nd half
After a week when the first Test post-mortem on the level of refereeing reached extraordinary new heights with Rassie Erasmus’ 62-minute video, Warren Gatland felt it best to limit his take on the contentious first-half yellow card for Cheslin Kolbe and on the refereeing in general following Saturday’s 27-9 defeat for the Lions by the Springboks.
Commenting on Sky Sports when the 25th-minute incident took place, the Test centurion referee Nigel Owens felt the Springboks winger was in red card trouble after he took Conor Murray out in the air. However, second Test referee Ben O’Keeffe felt the collision only merited a yellow card, leaving Kolbe only heading to a sin bin already occupied by Lions winger Duhan van der Merwe for his cynical 23rd-minute foot-trip on Kolbe.
“I’m not going to comment on the referee’s decisions,” responded Gatland at his virtual post-game Lions media briefing in Cape Town. “We’ll have our meeting with the referee next week and see what the assessors come back with in terms of their decision and then get find out what it was. It didn’t look great from where I was but he decided it was a yellow card decision.”
The try-less Lions were 9-6 ahead at the break but they fell away in a second half where they were held scoreless and how they lost out on the penalty count by 15-10 will be a source of frustration as well as how the Springboks slowed down the pace of the match.
Last week’s opening Test and the mid-tour game featuring South Africa A had seen the hosts struggle with their conditioning in the second halves but they countered that in this latest second half in Cape Town by preventing the Lions from building tempo and quickening up the play.
The Lions versus Springboks second Test was expected to be fractious and that angst quickly materialised in dour but feisty first half#CastleLionsSeries #LionsRugby #RSAvBIL
https://t.co/0FAxKKp5Tn— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 31, 2021
“The referee was continually talking to them about trying to speed the game up and keep it moving,” admitted Gatland. “That is something we will probably look at raising next week in terms of how we get some more tempo in the game and that every stoppage isn’t an injury stoppage which we seemed to have, in particular in that second half. It’s difficult to change that. Alun Wyn (Jones) was working with the referee and he was talking to Ben in terms of trying to speed the game up and keep it moving but it was very, very stop-start.”
Reflecting on a build-up where the refereeing became the dominant narrative, Lions boss Gatland hoped it doesn’t set a precedent for how such matters are handled in future and that there will be no repeat of Erasmus so publicly airing his grievances.
“I hope that doesn’t happen. We have got systems and processes in place and hopefully World Rugby looks at that in terms of making sure everyone follows the protocols and that is important. We do press conferences and try to give you guys some feedback and some information and we deal with the referees through World Rugby and that is the process.
“I just hope we don’t get to a situation where we end up with things on Twitter and people airing their views in that way. I found it quite strange that that approach was taken but it is definitely not something I will get involved in and it is important that we keep the integrity of the game up as much as we possibly can.
“The last thing that we need is a war of words and being accused of doing certain things. It’s amazing how the narrative changed with regard to the TMO. I didn’t make one comment leading up to the game last week on the TMO and yet I was accused of questioning his integrity.
“That’s the message that they were giving out. We will just keep things to ourselves and go through the proper channels when we deal with the referee, talk to the referee after reviewing the game and then hopefully get some feedback from him and us giving him so feedback as well.”
PLAYER RATINGS: The Lions faced a roll reversal in Cape Town, fading before a second-half Bok onslaught.
Here's how we rated the players #LionsTour2021 #LionsRugby #RSAvBIL https://t.co/Y1gAvsHpE8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 31, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
24 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
24 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
24 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments