What was the ref thinking and where were his assistants?

SA’s national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus is taking some flak for questioning the competence of the match officials who presided over last week’s first test of the British and Irish Lions series at Cape Town Stadium, but he is far from alone in being confounded at some of the decisions.

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The trio of experienced coaches who are part of Supersport’s Masterplan series - Swys de Bruin, Jonathan Mokuena and Robbi Kempson - found it hard to hide their incredulity and not be emotional when they went through some of the clips they presented in their latest program earlier this week.

Mokuena, a former Blitzbok player who has coached the Leopards in the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup first division and North/West University in the Varsity Cup, had already voiced his misgivings over what the Lions were being allowed to get away with in their attempts to negate the Springbok mauling and scrumming strength after the South Africa A game against the Lions.

“We go out to get dominance in the scrums and we use the maul as a big weapon so all we want is the referee to be consistent in terms of how they apply the law,” he said as he highlighted several instances where the Lions got away with illegal tactics, such as going to the knee in the scrums and swimming around in the mauls.

SWYS' MOTHER-IN-LAW WOULD HAVE SEEN IT

But it was De Bruin, who coached the Lions to a Super Rugby final himself and was also Johan Ackermann’s assistant coach during that franchise's three-year reign as South Africa’s top franchise and champion province, who was most exasperated.

He was annoyed by incidents that really should have seen Lions players carded but were somehow overlooked by the referee Nic Berry, his assistants and also TMO Marius Jonker.

“You can’t have a front row of three guys and then a flanker becomes the fourth guy. Tom Curry got away with it right in front of the ref. He leaves his position on the side of the scrum and goes through and hits the (Bok) front row player (Ox Nche) right on the chin,” said De Bruin, who was also an assistant coach with the Boks for a while.

“I’m sorry if I get emotional with this, but where is Curry now… my mother-in-law would have seen that.”

Kempson, who was director of rugby at the Southern Kings for three years and played many tests for South Africa on both sides of the scrum, concurred with De Bruin. He was incredulous that it was the Boks who got penalised at that specific scrum. Indeed, he felt the Lions should have been penalised.

“The penalty should have been on Furlong (Lions tighthead Tadhg Furlong), as he drops his bind and that was the first cause of the collapse of that scrum,” said Kempson.

WATSON TIP TACKLE ROBBED BOKS OF ATTACKING THREAT

The former Bok front row forward was also perplexed that Hamish Watson wasn’t yellow carded for his tip tackle that injured Bok fullback Willie le Roux in the 63rd minute.

“That was a straight yellow card,” he said. “We lost a player because of a tip tackle and that should have been a yellow card.”

Kempson said that Le Roux’s departure from the field made it almost impossible for the Boks to win through in the crucial final stages of a close game as the Boks were effectively without their scrumhalf, Faf de Klerk, flyhalf Handre Pollard and Le Roux at a stage when they needed an “experienced spine” at the back to press for the win.

However, while the referee, his assistants and the TMO all contributed to the Bok demise, De Bruin is convinced that the Boks also shot themselves in the foot by overdoing the contestable kicking and urged the coaches to be less predictable and more varied in their approach, perhaps playing off No 10 more, in order to surprise the Lions on Saturday.

“If it’s an attacking kick and we’ve got them on the rack and got them turning and we can isolate one of their players in the 22 then I am all for it, and Faf’s first kick of the game was an example of getting that right,” said De Bruin.

“My problem is if we just kick because it’s a 50/50 contestable, that’s too much of a gamble. It is a pity we are not playing off 10 more. It would be so nice if we could play off 10 more, which would mean the ball goes to the wider channels.”