SA ignore Samoan sideshows
The South African team will not be arguing its case against Samoa for several off-the-ball incidents that took place during their 13-5 World Cup Pool D victory on Friday, Springbok coach Peter de Villiers said.
The Boks were made to work for their fourth successive win at the 2011 tournament, but lost star back Frans Steyn to a tournament-ending shoulder injury, whilst a host of other players found themselves getting ‘special attention’ from the Samoans.
“We don’t want to lose focus,” De Villiers said on Sunday.
The violence extended from a blatant punch that struck Jaque Fourie while he was standing more than 20 metres from play, to several low blows flank Schalk Burger had to endure on the edges of the rucks.
De Villiers said these incidents would not receive further attention.
“We are here to win the World Cup and it takes around two or three hours to prepare an incident for the citing officer, and that time could be used better to prepare for the next match,” he said.
“All I want is for people to realise, the world saw it. The fact that they allowed it to take place brought the game into disrepute.”
The Samoan team now also face further action from the International Rugby Board, after Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu went on a Twitter rampage after his team’s defeat.
“What a fucking joke. RWC is bullshit. we were climbing a mountain all tournament!! You saw the game. Bullshit,” read one of his tweets.
Fuimaono, who accused World Cup officials of “slavery” and “apartheid” in a previous brain explosion, on Saturday accused Welsh referee Nigel Owens of being racist and biased in an expletive-filled Twitter rant. He will no face a misconduct hearing for his outburst.
De Villiers said the threats his players were exposed to intensified in the second half.
At the worst point Samoan fullback Paul Williams received a red card for striking Heinrich Brüssow.
“What bothered me most is that this could still happen at this level when there is technology at the disposal of the officials. If this is what professional rugby has become I do not want to be part of it.”
SAPA
