Johannesburg - The world’s best-loved referee, Nigel Owens, has added some spice to Saturday’s return match between the Springboks and the Wallabies by passing judgment on the two controversial incidents in last week’s game between the teams.
In a column for Wales online, the former world No 1 referee said that Marika Koroibete should have been yellow-carded for an illegal no-arms attack on Makazole Mapimpi at the corner flag, while he would have penalised Nic White for his amateur dramatics when Faf de Klerk attempted to slap the ball from him but instead, brushed his moustache.
On the Koroibete challenge that prevented Mapimpi from scoring, Owens said: “I have looked at it many times and I’m finding it difficult to see this as anything but an illegal tackle by Koroibete. To me, he leads with his shoulder and his arm is tucked down by his side. There’s not an attempt to wrap.
“He’s gone in with shoulder first and it should be a penalty and a yellow card. You are probably looking at a penalty try as well. It’s not the type of tackle we should be seeing in the game.”
Curiously, there was no full TMO review of the incident, thus allowing the Australian to get away with murder and depriving the Boks of a try.
“To me, that is a complete disaster. The referee on the field needs to make these decisions. This shouldn’t even be a TMO glancing at this and making a decision. The referee has to look at something like this and make the decision himself.”
Owens was less than charmed with White’s actions, which he regards as contrary to the spirit of the game. He says he would first have penalised De Klerk for his attempted slap down of the ball but then changed the penalty around.
“What you have then is a totally unacceptable reaction from Nic White and it was against the values of the game.
“So I would have reversed the penalty and penalised White. I would have said to him ‘You are not in the theatre, you are on the rugby field, where are your rugby values? You can’t behave like that.’
“Nic White shouldn’t have got away with it and should have had a good stern talking to about rugby values, at least, even if the referee decided against penalising him.”
IOL Sport