Ejection Tips Balance for New Zealand in Rugby Championship By EMMA STONEY September 15, 2013 AUCKLAND — No one could accuse South Africa of sour grapes following its 29-15 loss to New Zealand in the Rugby Championship. New Zealand’s bonus-point victory Saturday gave it 18 points and the lead over South Africa, which has 14 points with two matches to go. Springboks Coach Heyneke Meyer and captain Jean de Villiers could legitimately have criticized the French referee Romain Poite, who sent off South Africa hooker Bismarck du Plessis for two yellow cards, forcing the team to play almost 50 minutes of the match down a man. Poite also sent two New Zealand players, Kieran Read and Ma’a Nonu, to the sin bin late in what was a hugely physical and intense game, leaving the All Blacks with just 13 players. But by then, the victory had already been sealed. Meyer and de Villiers refused to blame the referee for their defeat. “We don’t have any excuses,” Meyer said. “The better team won on the day. That’s why they are the world champs. They really played well. “But you’re not going to play 14 men against the best team in the world and take them on,” he said. “You can’t scrum. You can’t drive in the lineout. And it affects your defense as well. “I don’t want to use that as an excuse. They played well.” De Villiers went even further. “This performance is 100 percent the fault of the players and myself as captain,” he said. “It’s very disappointing. I thought we let our country down tonight.” Privately, though, the South Africans will be fuming, particularly at Poite’s errant decision on du Plessis’ first yellow card in the 17th minute, which even New Zealand coach Steve Hansen said should not have been shown. The 113-kilogram, or 249-pound, hooker made a crunching tackle on Dan Carter that resulted in a shoulder injury for the New Zealand flyhalf. Carter will now miss the remainder of the Rugby Championship and the final Bledisloe Cup match against Australia next month. But it was a perfectly legal tackle, something Carter acknowledged on Twitter on Sunday. Poite, however, said du Plessis had not used his arms, although replays — which the referee could have viewed on the stadium’s big screens or instructed the television match official George Ayoub to look at — showed otherwise. Still, du Plessis was sent to the sin bin. Poite’s decision to penalize du Plessis may not have been quite so damaging to the Springboks had the hooker not committed a second offense by elbowing New Zealand flanker Liam Messam in the throat just two minutes into the second half. That yellow card was deserved, but because it was his second of the match, it also meant an automatic red card, and he was dismissed for the remainder of the game. It was a big blow for South Africa that effectively ended the contest, and not only because they were short a man and because du Plessis had been playing so well. The ejection changed the balance of the Springboks’ attack, as loose forward Willem Alberts had to sit on the sidelines while Adriaan Strauss filled in at hooker. “We were always short in the driving mauls because we didn’t have a loose forward there, and a lot of our plays are based around the loose forwards,” Meyer said. Hansen had no qualms about the other yellow cards issued by Poite — du Plessis’ second and the ones given to Nonu (shoulder charge) and Read (slowing down play). “Bismarck knew he had already been yellow-carded, and what he did the second time was dumb,” Hansen said. “You can’t elbow someone in the throat. He has to accept that it was his problem and not the referee’s. “The same with our two. Both of them were for reasonably dumb offenses.” Du Plessis now faces a judicial hearing to determine whether he will face further penalties. No further action has been taken against Nonu and Read. Carter will spend a third injury-related spell on the sidelines after a broken hand caused him to miss two tests against France and a calf injury cost him two Bledisloe Cup games against Australia. Tom Taylor, who made his All Blacks debut against Australia in Wellington, is likely to join the team for the remaining matches in La Plata, Argentina, and Johannesburg, the latter potentially being a title-decider. The ongoing issue with the scrums was the other major blight on the match at Eden Park. The new rules — the front rows must bind, rather than hit, on the engagement, and the scrumhalf must feed the ball in straight — were supposed to stop repeated collapses and resets. That has not been the case. The rules on the feed have thrown up a new problem for the hookers, as well. They now have to hook the ball back with their feet because the scrum must be stationary when the ball is fed in, and no longer is there any momentum from a big hit on impact to knock the opposition pack backward. That means the team with the scrum feed is at a disadvantage because its hooker has only one foot on the ground, so he is less stable and cannot push as hard. The opposition has all eight players involved in its shove. New Zealand hooker Dane Coles ackowledged that that aspect was proving to be the most challenging. “The ball has to go right down the center of the scrum in line with the shoulders of the engagement of both props,” he said. “For a hooker, that’s too far to put your foot out. “I think they’ve even had a couple of occasions where hookers have actually dislocated their hips because they’ve left their foot out and the pressure of the scrum has gone over,” he added. “I think the bind rule is definitely good. But I think maybe they’ve got to address the feeds because I don’t think it’s working.” Argentina, unsurprisingly, had no issues with its scrum in its clash against Australia, but it still fell agonizingly short of earning its first ever Rugby Championship victory. The Wallabies were kept scoreless in the second half of a dogged encounter in the wind and rain in Perth, but they clung on for a 14-13 victory to give Ewen McKenzie his first victory as coach. New York Times
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 16:43:09 +0000
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