Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has criticised the refereeing at the Rugby World Cup after his side were beaten by South Africa in their opening match.
The Scots were comfortably beaten 18-3 by the defending champions, who pulled away in the second half in Marseille through tries from Pieter-Steph Du Toit and Kurt-Lee Arendse. But the score was only 6-3 in South Africa’s favour at half-time – and things could have been different had a decision gone Scotland’s way.
Just two minutes were on the clock when Jesse Kriel clashed heads with Jack Dempsey while attempting a tackle. Despite captain Jamie Ritchie and fly-half Finn Russell trying to alert referee Angus Gardner to the tackle, the television match official Ben Whitehouse took no action.
The South African star escaped any punishment, just a day on from England’s Tom Curry seeing red for a similar collision. Pundits and fans alike slammed the decision and Townsend admitted frustration with the lack of consistency in the decision making. "I saw it about two screens away," he said. "It looked like a head-on-head collision and I was expecting the TMO to come in."
Asked if a card might have changed the game in Scotland’s favour, he replied: "Who knows? A red card last night didn't change the match too much in terms of Argentina.
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"We had a promising attacking position outside the 22 and the TMO came in for a body check [by Finn Russell]. I didn't know how that ended up being a penalty. So yes there are still inconsistencies. when there has been a head contact. We're frustrated at that but we're more frustrated at our own performance."
Former Scotland forward John Barclay was in no doubt over the decision. He said on ITV : "The confusion is you hear captains speak to the referees and they say, ‘We are always looking’. You are two minutes into the game and we’ve got an incident that is a red card. It’s a red card.
Jesse Kriel escaped punishment for a high tackle on Jack Dempsey (ITV)“He comes from a distance, clear line of sight, no drop in height and he applies force. It’s head on head. That’s a red card. The way the game is refereed now, whether you like it or not, that is a red card. And we saw a very similar incident last night (with Tom Curry) which was given as a yellow then upgraded in the bunker to a red.
“This is where the game gets a bit messy as in these instances where they look very similar, yeah from slightly different positions from a kick or whatever, but that’s a red card. And the fact that has not even been seen or reviewed is inexcusable.”
Sir Ian McGeechan added: “If there's going to be consistency in the World Cup, it has to apply to everyone. Tom Curry got the red card yesterday, that should be a red card today.”
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