PH
Peter de Villiers has reached boiling point with the standard of South African refereeing after it played another major role in his Eastern Province Elephants slumping to a third consecutive loss in the preparation series.
Wednesday night’s 0-43 thumping at the hands of Griquas was dogged by a third red card shown to an Elephants player in 160 minutes of rugby following winger Riaan Arends’ dismissal for stamping.
EP had already been put on the backfoot as early as the second minute, when eighthman Zingisa April was sidelined for 10 minutes for collapsing a Griqua maul that was destined for the tryline.
But De Villiers believed both incidents potentially lacked some discretion from referee Cwengile Jadezweni, particularly April’s sanction, which he argued should’ve led to warning first.
“I don’t think the yellow card should have been one. I think the referee should have warned us first,” he said.
“When you look at our matches, it’s like the 50-50 decisions are always against us. Look at how other teams get away with things that we are penalised for at the breakdowns.
“It’s not just last night’s referee. These are South Africa’s referees in general. I get the feeling that some referees go on to the field with a preconceived attitude.”
That said, centre Sherwin Slater’s high tackle on Griquas wing Enver Brandt – while not necessarily too dangerous – was above the legal threshold and should’ve warranted a yellow if World Rugby’s strict tackle laws are to be consistently applied.
He merely conceded a penalty.
De Villiers wasn’t as passionate in defending Arends’ stamp on Brandt a few moments later, but nonetheless thought there were mitigating circumstances.
“If you only look at the footage and not the incident as a whole, then it is correct that he was punished,” he said.
“But if you look at how Enver pulls Riaan’s jersey, then you get a different insight. He started it and Arends lost his balance. Where did he have to go?”
De Villiers though couldn’t deny that his charges’ overall showing was cause for concern, especially the inability to score a single point against opponents who themselves hadn’t won in 13 matches.
“I’m disappointed because I expected more from the guys. But then I need to put everything into perspective.
“We did the work other franchises normally do in six months of conditioning and pre-season training – EP did it in two months.
I expected that the legs would be gone and the recovery of the body is in shambles. As you can see, it is better to play unfit than over-trained.”
