Cape Town – Bulls coach Jake White has warned that the rugby world must avoid copying the diving culture from soccer to get players penalised following a controversial yellow card to Bismarck du Plessis in Saturday night’s 32-23 defeat to Ulster in Belfast.
Despite leaving the Kingspan Stadium without any log points to show for a commendable performance, the Bulls’ United Rugby Championship playoff situation was helped by the Sharks losing to the Scarlets and the Lions beating Benetton, as they are now in seventh position with 43 points – two ahead of the Durban side and one behind Connacht – with two home matches to come against Zebre and Leinster in April.
But it could have been very different, as they mounted a late charge to claim the victory at Ravenhill and were stopped in their tracks by the Du Plessis yellow card in the 76th minute.
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In fact, many 50-50 calls from referee Craig Evans and TMO Jon Mason went against the visitors, but the Du Plessis sin-binning wasn’t even a tight decision. The veteran hooker cleaned-out Ulster flyhalf Billy Burns at a breakdown, and the No 10 went flying and stayed down for treatment.
Initially Evans thought nothing of it as he was right on the spot when the incident happened. Burns got up gingerly and was holding his back, but got into position again in defence.
Once Evans stopped playing the Bulls’ penalty advantage and went to the mark, Burns was seen getting attention from a medic and he eventually got to his feet.
Evans then checks on him, and the TV replay of the clean-out suddenly pops up, which got the Ulster fans going in the stands. The referee had a good look at the big screen in the stadium, and TMO Mason then says “there was a right shoulder in the back of 10”, and agrees with Evans that there was no attempt of a wrap.
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Former Springbok captain Bob Skinstad was the TV expert commentator, and said it was harsh and that Evans had been close to the incident. “It’s not tiddlywinks, it’s rugby,” Skinstad added.
White was not happy with the decision either. “There are clean-outs like that all over the game, and I didn’t even think it was a penalty. I often wonder if their number 10 hadn’t laid down on the ground, whether that would’ve been looked for…
“Obviously it’s something we have to look at going forward, because what we don’t want is that every time a player gets cleaned-out, he lies down and makes the TMO look and review things.
“It’s something that we have to be careful of, because I know it happened in football, and then all of a sudden, they brought in something where if you dive, you get sent off as well.
“So, who knows: maybe in rugby, because it’s such a fine line now between yellow cards, red cards and TMO involvements that we are not going to get players trying to use every opportunity to influence the TMO, (there needs to be a way to address that).”
It was the Bulls’ 11th defeat in 13 matches across all competitions, and another massive test awaits the Pretoria side next Sunday in the Champions Cup last-16 clash against Toulouse in France.
So, things are getting a bit desperate now for White and his team, but he was delighted with the impact made by Bok stars Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie, and he felt that some ill-discipline cost the Bulls the victory over Ulster.
“I thought we played really well. I don’t think the score-line is a true reflection of the way we played. It seems to be one of those seasons where we just do all the hard work and just can’t seem to get over the last hurdle,” he said.
“The first half, we got quite a lot of opportunities. Second half, first two minutes, yellow card against us and seven points. We literally went from having an eight-point lead into the tunnel (for halftime), and when we came out, two minutes later, we had a one-point lead and 14 men. So, people often talk about a game of two halves, and that was a game of two halves.
“After the run-in we’ve had, and we haven’t won for a while, the confidence is a bit low. But there are positives: we played really well at times.
“There were moments there where you just saw the involvements of Kurt-Lee and Canan – guys we haven’t had in the system for a long time. You saw how important they are to our attack as well.
“It’s obviously a difficult one. It tests everybody, coaches and players. But there were a couple of results that went our way today (Scarlets beating Sharks and Lions beating Benetton), which obviously still keeps us alive, and we’ve got two games at home.
“So, we’ve got to make sure now that we do not replicate that result, but replicate some of that performance and then get over the last hurdle.”
Points-Scorers
Ulster 32 – Tries: Rob Baloucoune, Tom Stewart (3). Conversions: Nathan Doak (3). Penalties: Doak (1), John Cooney (1).
Bulls 23 – Tries: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Zak Burger. Conversions: Chris Smith (2). Penalties: Smith (3).
