Rassie Erasmus highlights refereeing inconsistencies after Springboks’ win over Italy

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus chose his words carefully after his gutsy team had overcome major obstacles to beat Italy 32-14 on Saturday night, but he nevertheless made it clear that refereeing decisions have blighted his team’s last fortnight of matches.

Last week against France, Lood de Jager was dubiously red-carded, and then history repeated itself in Turin when fellow lock Franco Mostert was outrageously red-carded in the 11th minute.

“How can you coach a 2.6m guy to go lower than he does?” Erasmus asked. “They are on their knees …”

Erasmus added: “We thought that the process was a 20-minute red card, and it is not my place to say it, but for a second week in a row, our captain (Siya Kolisi) had to suffer (by being sacrificed to the bench). Because of a yellow card that could have been reviewed.

“I’m not saying it is the wrong call,” Erasmus continued tactfully, “but we saw other calls in the game where there were head calls, but the game was not stopped. It is tough; I’m not blaming anyone, but the balance in calling the head shots was not equal in this game.

“We will review the game, and maybe we will come to a different conclusion, and if we see that we were wrong most of the time, then we will rectify it.”

Erasmus was asked if this match was more difficult than the France encounter, when the Boks lost De Jager in the 38th minute.

“At one stage, we were at 13, and that was not easy. Yes, this match was tougher than last week.”

Speaking about how the Springboks have an immense ability to adapt to such situations on the field, captain Kolisi said: “We went through it last weekend, and this week we went through the same thing. So we make plans in the game as we go along because such things happen.

“The biggest thing that we were asked this week is to show our ‘Africanness’ and that’s about making plans because there are always stumbles, and that’s what I am grateful for with our coaching staff.

“They are always prepared for any scenario, and even the guys who are not playing sit and make plans and decisions, they always buy in.”

Kolisi added: “It doesn’t make it easy for us. We can talk about sacrifices, but seeing a guy like Franco sitting there, we could see the hurt in his eyes.

“That said, I really love the way this team is just able to stand up and fight. We always say whatever happens between those four lines, we can still go as hard as we can and control what we can.”