VIDEO - Stick on red cards: Disappointment swirls through Bok camp
DUBLIN, IRELAND: Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick says the Boks are feeling the brunt of refereeing calls at the moment, admitting his frustration ahead of Saturday’s crucial clash with Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
Last Saturday, against Italy, lock Franco Mostert received a direct red card for an apparent high tackle, a week after Lood de Jager suffered the same fate against France.
At a Springbok media briefing on Monday, Stick could not hide the frustration from a Bok perspective.
He highlighted the red cards that Makazole Mapimpi (five-match suspension; dangerous tip) and Jan-Hendrik Wessels (nine-game suspension; groin grab) received, followed by De Jager and Mostert.
He revealed that De Jager has appealed his suspension, which will be heard this week.
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“As a team, we are just disappointed with how things are flowing at the moment. We are losing players every week.
“It’s sad because the build-up to the Italy game was good, and the spirit in Turin, everyone was looking forward to it.
“And then the way the game ended. If Franco were a red card, what we saw over the weekend in other games, surely, there should’ve been five red cards,” Stick explained.
“But all of a sudden, it is other situations, and they become yellow cards.
“We are just disappointed with the way things are being handled at the moment,” adding, “If you look at the actions of Franco, and Lood the previous week, they did everything by the book.
“It was probably just the conduct was here [indicating to his shoulder and above], but it went to the head.
“I don’t understand how it becomes a permanent red card. For us as coaches, we have to work hard because we are working with these guys [pointing to Eben Etzebeth next to him]. You can see they are nice and tall.
“They’ve tried to do everything by the book, but rugby is a physical game. Sometimes you don’t get it perfect.
“But for them to say the tackle was never legal was disappointing.
“And we feel for the referee, because we understood the communication that was happening between him and his team outside of him.
“There were about 21 decisions that were supposed to be made in the first half; 20 of them went against us.
“Not because of the referee, but because he has to respect the communication from his team.
“I would like to apologise to Italy for how things turned out.”
