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Ref Watch: England dodged a high penalty count bullet

By Paul Smith
South Africa are a magnificent side but would bringing them into the Six Nations be a step too far? (Pic /PA)

Social media has heaped criticism on referee Andy Brace following England’s narrow win over South Africa, but having watched the match back this is mostly undeserved since he got a lot more right than he got wrong.

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Every hard-fought match has critical moments and tight calls and this was no different, but I suspect when the Irish whistler has another look at the game only his management of England’s high penalty count will seriously trouble him.

Pens against England (by quarter) 1, 6, 7, 4 = 18
Pens against SA (by quarter) 2, 2, 0, 4 = 8

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Eddie Jones and Courtney Lawes

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Eddie Jones and Courtney Lawes

Scrum
I really liked the way Brace set his stall out from the outset with the front rows.

He took an age to set the first scrum – the oldest management trick in the book when the players have steam coming out of their ears – and insisted on it being set at a good height and with clear space visible between the packs at the ‘bind’ call.

By correctly penalising South Africa (via touch judge assistance) at the second scrum for tight head Trevor Nyakane causing the scrum to collapse by “overstretching” Brace put down a marker in an area where a huge contest-within-a- contest was anticipated.

Remarkably the match contained only seven scrums in total, one of which delivered clean possession.

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The arrival of the ‘bomb squad’ certainly piled pressure on England’s front row – and all three second half set-pieces ended in a South African penalty.

However, with so few scrums these infringements were well spread and as a consequence never became a trend which resulted in (or needed) a yellow card.

Game Management and England’s penalty count

Quarter One

Only three penalties were blown in the first 20 minutes.

Quarter Two

England conceded six penalties, four of which came between the 20th and 30th minutes. However, three of these were in attacking situations for support players sealing off on the ground and Joe Marchant being in front of a chip ahead. These are irrelevant for ‘totting up’ purposes.

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The quiet word Brace had with captain Courtney Lawes just after the half-hour mark therefore seemed appropriate.

Quarter Three

Like the coaches and players, the officials use half-time to review the first 40 minutes and make necessary adaptations as required, so Brace should therefore have been fully aware that the home side had just shipped six penalties in a quarter.

As a result, when Sam Underhill was needlessly offside only 30 seconds into the second half he missed a golden chance to upgrade his quiet word to the more formal warning that may have nipped the problem in the bud.

By the 53rd minute England has infringed five times since the restart and with the overall penalty count now 12-4 Siya Kolisi’s frustration was mounting and the situation badly needed addressing.

Four minutes later, while already playing advantage for an earlier offside, England were penalised later in the same move in a maul. At this point there had still been no formal warning issued.

Quarter Four

Penalty number 15 arrived in the 62nd minute and only then was Lawes told: “Tidy up in this area please.”

The next infringement – another maul entry offence – saw replacement prop Will Stuart shown a yellow card.

Standards are usually set very high in international rugby and in my opinion Brace and his team were far too tolerant.

Makazole Mapimpe’s try came with England reduced to 14 and with Brace playing advantage for a Marcus Smith offside. Had the Boks failed to score it is interesting to speculate if a second yellow card would have resulted?

TMO

It was extremely refreshing to watch a match in which the first TMO intervention came after the hour mark.

This decision to only penalise rather than card Charlie Ewels for his high shot on Eben Etzebeth seemed appropriate given that the South African was on his way to ground when the contact occurred.

Kolisi Yellow Card

In commentary the excellent David Flatman disagreed with this call. However, while agreeing with his observation that the Springbok skipper never took his eyes off the ball then attempted to convert his aerial challenge into a tackle, for me the law as written was applied correctly.

Kolisi was never in a position to catch the ball, and like it or not (I personally don’t) the question of intent is no longer of any relevance to the officials in considering their sanction.

Joe Marchant was not brought to ground in a controlled or safe manner and a yellow card was therefore the correct outcome.

TMO Brian Macneice completed a thorough job by preventing England from pinching the five metres that would have brought the resulting penalty within range of the posts.

Final Minute

I have written before that a match-deciding last minute penalty call has to be crystal clear since no referee wants to determine the outcome of the match.

Both 79th minute penalties conceded by South Africa dropped into this category since Herschel Jantjies clearly failed to release in the tackle, then after Brace played advantage Francois Steyn dived in and killed the ball at the next breakdown with a ‘knee slide’ that on another day could be construed as dangerous play.

One for Twitter

There seems to be plenty of social media discussion around Max Malins’ 57th minute tackle which stopped a promising South African attack short of the home line.

Brace checked with his touch judge – who was right on top of the incident – to confirm whether Malins had made the tackle while off his feet from a subsequent contact, and hence according to law ‘out of the game.’

The touch judge advised that England’s replacement was “not clearly” on the ground, and having viewed it in slo-mo it does seem that his left foot is on the turf taking his weight while his right knee is on the ground.

Given that the TMO also had ample opportunity to intervene, but chose to stay silent, we can assume there was therefore no clear case for a penalty – or the penalty try some Springbok fans (perhaps hopefully) called for.

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Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

32 Go to comments
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Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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