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'Merited a red card': Romain Poite says South Africa star escaped sending off
By Josh Raisey
A number of current and ex referees have had their say about the events of the quarter-final clash between France and South Africa last weekend, including the match referee himself Ben O’Keeffe.
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Former referee turned Toulon coach Romain Poite is the latest person to have their say about some of the controversial moments at the Stade de France on Sunday, and believes South Africa flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit should have been red carded in the first-half.
The incident came on 17 minutes in South Africa’s 22. Following a carry from prop Frans Malherbe, France centre Jonathan Danty attempted a jackal. The Frenchman was cleared out by Bongi Mbonambi and subsequently penalised by O’Keeffe for playing the ball off his feet. However, just after being driven backwards by the Springboks hooker, he received a blow to the face from du Toit in what appeared to be head-on-head contact.
Danty stayed on one knee and was immediately treated by the medic, but nothing came of this incident. But Poite, speaking to Midi Olympique this week, believes this should have resulted in a red card for the Springbok.
“Danty is rightly penalised for playing the ball on the ground without being on his feet and is on the ground without having possession of the ball,” the Frenchman said.
“The South African No7 (Du Toit), who wants to clean very low, comes into direct contact with Danty’s head with his head, without really controlling his posture. Which, in the eyes of the rules, could (should!) have largely merited a red card…”
Bizarrely, this was similar to the red card du Toit received last year against France in Marseille, where Danty was the recipient of head-on-head contact again. On that occasion France came away 30-26 winners, although it was the reigning world champions who came out on top this time, winning 29-28.
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The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
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