British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland has expressed his disappointment that a World Rugby statement announcing a disciplinary probe into the behaviour of South Africa’s national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus also chose to censure him for his media comments on referees.
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World Rugby announced on Monday night that the organisation would be conducting an independent misconduct hearing into Erasmus and SA Rugby for comments made ahead of the second test between the Springboks and the Lions pertaining to the performances of the referees.
The part of the statement that Gatland would have objected to though was the following: “Having conducted a full review of all the available information, World Rugby is concerned that individuals from both teams have commented on the selection and/or performance of match officials.”
In Gatland’s case the most recent remark on the officiating was when he was described by the UK media as being “fuming” after hearing that South African Marius Jonker was being used as the TMO following the withdrawal of the initial appointee, New Zealander Brendon Pickerill.
“The only thing I’m disappointed with in World Rugby’s statement is that they’ve inadvertently dragged us into it. We never spoke about the referee or questioned the TMO,” said Gatland.
“The only thing we questioned was why World Rugby hadn’t put a contingency plan in place. I’m disappointed with the statement in saying that both sides have been critical.
“We’ve looked through everything and we can’t see any instances of that. In fact, we’ve praised the officials.”
Gatland’s search for evidence of them complaining about the refereeing obviously didn’t go far enough back, for there was quite a bit said when Faf de Klerk was accused of getting off lightly after he was yellow carded for an illegal tackle on Josh Navidi when he played against the Lions for SA A.
It was then that the whole off-the-field war of words started, with Gatland also at that time questioning Erasmus’s role as a water boy.
Where Gatland might get a lot of assenters from both sides of the spectrum though is his call for the game to be quickened up, something that would obviously suit his team but also most spectators who were at risk of falling asleep during a marathon first half that stretched to 63 minutes in the second test.
“I think there’s two things (to address when it comes to ball in play time),” said Gatland at the Lions’ team announcement press conference.
“One is looking at the ball and keeping it. The other is talking to the officials and keeping the game flowing. It felt like every scrum, there was an injury slowing it down. There was 14 minutes of TMO time.
“We’ve worked hard on conditioning so it’s frustrating. South Africa don’t want to do that. It’s so stop-start, it’s frustrating. I know Alun Wyn was talking to the ref to keep it going. That’s one thing we’ll be discussing with the ref. We can’t have 60 minute halves, as much from a spectator view. We want to see good rugby and we didn’t see that.”
However, while wanting the game to be quicker might get universal approval, some might argue that those comments, particularly the words “we want”, highlight the main problem area that Erasmus’s video focused on, namely that there’s always just so much grey area that the respective coaches can have an influence on.
The Springboks made it clear at their team announcement press conference earlier on Tuesday that they would not be commenting on the disciplinary hearing into Erasmus’s alleged misconduct.