SA vs Ireland First Test 2024 - The World Champions vs The Best Team in the World

Are there any actual rugby referees on here that can objectively comment on Pearce and Whitehouse's performances yesterday?

Those comments were directed at Doris who was the captain at that stage.

Well if you are going back to that ruck, the neck roll on Kelleher should have seen Ireland with a penalty. Foul play.

The last SA kick off, Kolbe was metres ahead of the kicker iirc

Well whatever decision they made, it was wrong. Try should have stood IMO. The selective reviewing of incidents is killing the game

Well it wasn't a clear and obvious infringement IMO.

A player was dragged in a neck roll and the ball came off his foot. Let's ignore the foul play and give a penalty against that player is not good enough at this level.

Schrodinger's Frawley

Off topic here but does anyone know is there a conscious effort being made to show anything but the scrap taking place on the pitch? Seems in the past you'd get to see the handbags but yesterday the cameras kept switching to the crowd. Those are important parts of the game!

Ben Whitehouse always over interferes as tmo. Sometimes in your favour sometimes not. If you go back for offences like Kellehers then so many tries would be disallowed. They leave them go mostly otherwise the system doesn't work

A key element of assessing what is worth a risk is potential reward.

The reward of playing a 30 year old who couldnt take a provincial jersey from an unfit retiree is near zero.

I don't agree with exposing Prendergast to this tour environment but it is not at all far fetched for someone to believe fast tracking one of our best young talents in a position of shallow depth is worth a risk.

10 is so key that I'm not sure he has enough time in camp and reps in training to have everything needed down to perform. Backs are likely to be pretty disjointed too given the injuries.

As for other national teams, not many top sides give debuts to such young and inexperienced players away on tours against the world champions. This isn't like doing it against the likes of Argentina or Canada.

My intention is not to bash referees but Whitehouse seemed to be constantly talking in Pearce's ear. Is that the norm for him? I've never been so aware of it until this match. That's why I'm wondering if there are any actual rugby refs on here to give their informed and knowledgeable opinions of some of the decisions that people seem aggrieved by.

Highlighting facts does 'really seem to have annoyed someone. 😂' (to quote your high quality post)

Zebo has retired and when you look at the level of fat he was carrying for a back three player, his notoriety for being a lazy trainer, and his body clearly breaking down (through missing time with injuries and dealing with cramps even when he played) I don't know how you can put up a debate to my other comment.

Good form or not, Haley couldn't beat that player out - which you would be expecting to play for Ireland, or even get into an Irish squad. That is 100% on Haley and justifies AF's previous judgement on him and why barring a miracle he wont get near playing for Ireland again in a meaningful match.

Feel that is a bit hyperbolic.

It probably is a penalty but you tend see something similar to this in most games, probably a dozen plus times when you're playing SA or their club sides when they're fully up for it - like the Bulls v Leinster in the semi.

It is one of the risks of playing such an undersized player when it comes to those types of collisions (pretty sure I've seen Faf come off badly also). The outcome of those incidents is multiplied on smaller players. The Koch clearout a few seconds later on Doris could have easily ended the same way but Doris has more ballast and luck of where his head landed.

As for the lack of remorse and concern for an opponent, that reaction is far from what I want to see from a player on my team. However, it and the high fives likely come from the full siege mentality Rassie has instilled within the Boks. Even presuming him and Casey are on good terms post Munster, Rassie has stated his aim is to have his players hating the opposition as they go onto the pitch so that reaction isnt at all surprising. It will always be wild to me how some here still look up to Rassie.