Victor Matfield and John Kirwan clashed over the decisions and officiating during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry decider between the Springboks and All Blacks on Saturday.
The former Bok and ex-All Black spoke on the Rugby Rivals podcast, after South Africa beat New Zealand to win the series 3-1, with Kirwan and Matfield particularly discussing the performance of referee Karl Dickson at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium.
“Let’s try and be objective about this,” Kirwan said. “Why would you put a northern hemisphere ref in charge of a southern hemisphere game?
“Forget the results – you guys deserve to win. Across the series you were the better side. It came down to the wire. But this ref has the ability to just make the game pedantic.”
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Matfield replied: “I thought he didn’t want to make calls. I don’t know if you’d say ‘pedantic’ – I thought there were quite a few turnovers at breakdown time where he didn’t want to give them to us.
“There was one where Deon [Fourie] definitely had it, where you guys got the penalty.
“In some circumstances, the earpiece that didn’t work slowed him down, and then there were quite a few injuries, quite a few blood injuries, so that just slowed it down.
“But I thought all the decisions they made with the TMO were spot on, 100%.”
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Kirwan agreed with Matfield on the spirit in which the series was played, but harped on about breakdown officiating and fairness.
“I totally agree with Victor about the game, about the love we have for each other and the boys praying. I think it’s amazing. But the refs make a massive difference and they need to get better.
“For example, I thought that South Africa at the breakdown were really, really on the limit. They never released the player. They stuck onto the player and they slowed the ball down, and the ref let them do it.
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“Now, if the referee’s any good, in the first five minutes he penalises that and no one does it. But he waited until the last five minutes to penalise for coming in on the lineout too close, and for hanging on to the player and not releasing him in the tackle.
“What frustrates me is that it changes the game for everybody, so it doesn’t make it a fair contest.”
Matfield noted teams just need to do their homework on the on-day referee.
“I can remember when we played, whenever you had Nigel Owens as a referee, he just wanted to let the game go. He’s not going to blow.
“I also think you need to look at the referees, analyse them, know what their strengths are, know how they want to blow the game, and you have to adapt to that.”
Photo: Alan Spiegler/Gallo Images
The post JK, Matfield bleat about Baltimore ref appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Victor Matfield and John Kirwan clashed over the decisions and officiating during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry decider between the Springboks and All Blacks on Saturday.
The post JK, Matfield bleat about Baltimore ref appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
