For several reasons, the Springboks’ 32-14 defeat of Italy in Turin must rank among Rassie Erasmus’ top 10 most gratifying wins, given this was a performance of the highest standards in the face of rank adversity. I can picture Erasmus in the Bok change room saying, “The officials can throw whatever they want at us, but we will suck it up and show them the middle finger.”
This unbelievably dramatic game will sadly be recalled for the ridiculous red card given to Franco Mostert, but it should equally be revered as a match where the Springboks confirmed they are one of the greatest teams to grace the game, as they once more found a way to win against the odds.
The wonderful Schalk Burger in the SuperSport studio best summed up the red-card disaster that struck the Boks when he said, “The referees are coming up with more fiction than Hollywood’s script writers.”
Schalk nailed it. For the second week in a row, a Springbok lock was given a permanent red card by the on-field referee, with no thought given to the proper process of referring the matter to the bunker, where officials can look at all the angles and arrive at the right decision.
If the Lood de Jager decision last week against France was harsh, the Mostert punishment was diabolical, mostly because replays showed that it was totally unwarranted — his shoulder did not make contact with the head of flyhalf Paolo Garbisi in the 11th minute.
Further, for the referee to say there were no mitigating circumstances is pathetic because, as Mostert was preparing for the tackle, Ethan Hooker tackled Garbisi and lowered his height.
It is wrong that inept officials are permitted to ruin the games for the spectators by making massively impactful errors.
If Rassie Erasmus last week said that the Boks had troubles with officialdom (after the De Jager red), I would like to see what he says on social media about this one.
At the time of the card, Erasmus stared open-mouthed at the pitch before snapping into damage-control mode.
Desperate times required desperate measures, and after just 19 minutes the unfortunate Zachery Porthen was sacrificed for the might of Wilco Louw. And Hooker was sent to the side of the scrum to do an Andre Esterhuizen on the Bok put-ins.
But the contingency plans did not at first work, with the South African scrum remaining under pressure. So Rassie tinkered once more, in the 22nd minute, replacing Boan Venter with Gerhard Steenekamp. This move failed too, with scrum penalties going the way of the men in blue. Luckily for the Boks, Garbisi’s aim at goal was poor, and he twice steered the ball wide of the posts.
On came Esterhuizen and Ruan Nortje as the coaches continued their first aid.
Damian Willemse was gainfully employed at the back from the outset as the Italians peppered him with high balls, and the Bok fullback was neatly up to it. His positional play in dealing with the kicks was exceptional.
After soaking up immense pressure, the first time the Boks got into the Italians’ 22, a series of forward rumbles gave Pollard the space to snap over a drop goal. It was disallowed because of obstruction, but the Boks instead had a penalty in front and Pollard duly kicked that over.
Steenekamp was forced off for an HIA after an Italian arm to his head. Captain Kolisi was battling to keep his cool. He had also taken a blow to the head that went unchecked.
Garbisi levelled the score with three minutes to the break, but the Boks had a resounding last say when Marco van Staden smashed over under the posts.
A Garbisi penalty narrowed the gap to 10-6 in the first points of the second half. He nailed a third after Van Staden was fair and square yellow-carded for going offside when the Italians were pressing on the Bok line. It was 15 v 13 as Garbisi kicked his third penalty.
The Boks kept on fighting and forced a penalty for Pollard to extend the lead to 15-13.
There was yet another extraordinary moment in the 56th minute when the referee yellow-carded No. 8 Lorenzo Cannone for head-to-head contact with Nortje. It was extraordinary because this was a clear-cut banging of heads, but it went to the bunker. Why could the same thing not have happened with Mostert?
The plot thickened when fullback Ange Capuozzo sliced through the defence for an excellent score. Garbisi missed the conversion to leave the score at 20-14.
Not long after, the Boks fashioned the best passage of play after 73 minutes of trench warfare — Manie Libbok moved the ball wide from deep in his half, Canan Moodie wrong-footed the defence and Grant Williams came screaming in to take the pass for the defining try of the match.
Hooker then sealed the deal, scoring in the right corner after a great cross-field kick by Libbok.
Scorers
Springboks — Tries: Marco van Staden, Morne van den Berg, Grant Williams, Ethan Hooker. Penalties: Handre Pollard (2). Conversions: Pollard (2), Manie Libbok.
Italy — Tries: Ange Capuozzo. Penalties: Paulo Garbisi (3).
