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'Merited a red card': Romain Poite says South Africa star escaped sending off
By Josh Raisey
A number of current and ex referees have had their say about the events of the quarter-final clash between France and South Africa last weekend, including the match referee himself Ben O’Keeffe.
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Former referee turned Toulon coach Romain Poite is the latest person to have their say about some of the controversial moments at the Stade de France on Sunday, and believes South Africa flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit should have been red carded in the first-half.
The incident came on 17 minutes in South Africa’s 22. Following a carry from prop Frans Malherbe, France centre Jonathan Danty attempted a jackal. The Frenchman was cleared out by Bongi Mbonambi and subsequently penalised by O’Keeffe for playing the ball off his feet. However, just after being driven backwards by the Springboks hooker, he received a blow to the face from du Toit in what appeared to be head-on-head contact.
Danty stayed on one knee and was immediately treated by the medic, but nothing came of this incident. But Poite, speaking to Midi Olympique this week, believes this should have resulted in a red card for the Springbok.
“Danty is rightly penalised for playing the ball on the ground without being on his feet and is on the ground without having possession of the ball,” the Frenchman said.
“The South African No7 (Du Toit), who wants to clean very low, comes into direct contact with Danty’s head with his head, without really controlling his posture. Which, in the eyes of the rules, could (should!) have largely merited a red card…”
Bizarrely, this was similar to the red card du Toit received last year against France in Marseille, where Danty was the recipient of head-on-head contact again. On that occasion France came away 30-26 winners, although it was the reigning world champions who came out on top this time, winning 29-28.
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Bye Bye England. . .SA bench changed game. SA by a try.
4 more years.
If this had happened to Sth Africa, The Waterboy would have crashed the iCloud with video nasties and their fans would have been apoplectic with rage. Instead its “get over it, France”. Bok fans and their Boss Daddy are biggest whingers in rugby.
Yawn FY
Rassie Erasmus said the other day that France can still make it to the world cup final.
All they need to do is to buy tickets for the show piece.
Making death threads to the World Champions , South Africa,is no good France .So happy to hear the French police 🚨 are investigating these potential murderers.
The Southern hemisphere rugby players are much more attractive then their Northern hemisphere peers.
I feel I can faint by just looking at a kiwi, puma or Bok .Really.
The Northern hemisphere will never win the world cup again because they don't know how to play rugby and they don't know what it takes to progress to the final.
Corlina. Without a doubt. This is the single most accurate, bestest ever comment made on this failing rugby site.
SH players are indeed the most handsome, most talented, most interesting players in the world.
I also feel faint just looking at them.
Oh my gosh.
France , please stop 🛑 nagging about your loss against South Africa.
You deserved to lose and don't feel bad about it .You lost against the best team in the entire world. South Africa will win their fourth world cup and there is nothing we can do about it accept for being good losers .
I can't wait for you to accept the Spring Boks' defeat in the final with open arms.
This is quite hilarious. All of the sudden no one is talking about the Eben apparent knock on and all the other discretion’s because they got proved wrong. So, they had to move on and find something else to bitch about. France lost, with home ground advantage. It was theirs for the taking and they failed.
From the late comments anyone can see the huge discrepancy between northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere refereeing.
In the south, as long as the head is not rolling on the grass, all is correct. In the north if you breath a bit closely to the eyes then it is hanging at least and torture added for rougher cases. Surprisingly, southern fans and players have problems with northern referees decisions and northern fans have problems with southern so called referees. That’s the world as it is…
I feel for France, losing a game like that in their own World Cup, but they really shouldn’t be looking for excuses like that, if that’s what made his comments come about.
It was highlighted in a YT video I saw, the footage clearly shows PSDT coming in to grab the ball with both hands before the French guy pulls the ball back to his own body, forcing PSDT to dip even lower to get on the ball which is not right by the head of the guy on the ground. There’s no one to blame for the resulting head contact but the player himself.
Poite the twat!
Nigel Owen said it was good 👍
And if Nigel says its good who are we to argue, after all he is probably the best ref the world has ever seen.
Fuck off Poite you weak kneed pussy of a referee. Will forever be remembered as the guy who changed an obvious penalty to the ABs in the last minute of the 2017 3rd test v BILs, to a scrum. Final play of game, scores even, easy kick, wind down the clock, game over, test series won. Then he later comes out in media to say he was wrong & describes how he destroyed his locker room space, was so angry with himself after the game, blah blah blah.
Again, he’s full of shit. The on-field referee team, TMO, & Citing Commisdioner, all saw no foul play. I think all teams have 48 hours post match to lay a complaint with Citing Commissioner too? Dork.
Go and chew some bubblegum ya bum.
“The on-field referee team, TMO, & Citing Commisdioner, all saw no foul play”
This is the real issue.
If it was a red card then why wasn’t he cited after the game? Geez I thought us Saffas were bad losers but the French are taking it to a whole new dimension…
1) watch the video 2) ask to WR why he’s not cited
The worst referee of all time. He should never have been allowed to referee a international game. He cant even communicate a very basic message to anyone on field in his days. Voetjek
Off coarse you’re the best ref in the world whinging dick heads cut and paste for four more years.
Take a look at the B.O.K video and tell me that any of the decisions were wrong, voetjek!
Fyi, according to Midol which is a reliable and historic french rugby newspaper, WR just recognized in its post game analysis, a major mistake regarding the h2h from DuToit on Danty. BTW the same situation happened with the same players last year … but finished with a red card. IMO, Du toit should be banned for months!!
Fédération Française de Rugby should be brought up on corruption charges regarding the awarding as 2023 hosts.
Yeah right! I remember the “deal” he struck in the final Test between the British Lions and the All Blacks. I remember the Bismarck du Plessis/Dan Carter incident too. Biased opinion? Enjoy your retirement from refereeing Romain, we certainly are enjoying it.
Worst referee of all time, by a mile. Couldn’t care less what she has to say.
And yet here you are posting a passive aggressive response. I think you care a lot Chris.
This the same guy that sent Bismarck du Plessis off for a legal tackle on Carter? Ja i dont care much what he says.
Why are you guys posting if this guys so irrelevant?
Never biased, never influenced by the crowd, never wanted to stand out as an official during a game and blew only what he saw. Great idea to get an opinion from him. Next authoritative comment on reffing will be from Beckham’s wife
Yep PDT should have gone.
Cheating with HIA and excess water breaks as well.
SA do not play in the spirit of the game. Rassie orchestrates the cheating.
Piss off and go cry in your cheap wine!
Where I work when we go to the toilet we say:” I am going to go Poite”. He is one of the worst refs in history.
What is the “spirit of the game” for you this week old Piel chap?
Did you see the head contact with PSDT that led to him going off? or are you looking for excuses. Classic “Rassie man bad” attitude.