RWCR4 Springboks vs Tonga 1 Oct @ 21h00

[Sards]

Geez I am like a flat Tyre today. These late Sundays suck

[Punter15]

I fucking hate swearing.

[Sandstorm]

I fucking hate swearing.

“Willemse will start, I’m a bench probable unless 7/1”

[OomStruisbaai]

Willie defnitely spoke Namaqualands.

[Blake]

I'm already mentally preparing myself for the ref going totally Homer in the France match, then everyone saying how good they were post-match. On social media there's actually people saying Pearce got the Mapimpi call correct and it should always be reffed like that rather than how it has been, they admit Pearce just invented a new reffing standard at odds with how this tournament has been reffed and say that like it's a good thing, the same people would have a heart attack if the Boks played to that standard.

Ja, I'm usually not one for ref bashing, but I'm worried about this as well. Seeing how blatantly the French TV directors manipulated the broadcast in the Heineken Cup was quite eye opening, so I've been dreading crossing paths with France at their home World Cup.

But I think Jacques and Rassie have been preparing for it as well. That's why there has been such a focus on developing cross-functional skillsets with the players. It's not about moving Van Staden to hooker, it's about having another player that can take over lineout duties when the hooker is in the bin. Or having a forward like Kwagga that can cover at center in a pinch if Kriel gets a yellow or red for a headshot. Adjusting on the fly so you can play with 14 players with minimal disruption. It's a reality now and teams that can do this will give themselves a fighting chance.

Yes, our record has been good thus far, but we've also been lucky. There has been an incident in every match (bar maybe the Ireland match) where a bok could have been carded if another ref was on the whistle.
Kriel in the Scotland match, can't remember who now but somebody in the Romania match, and on another night Eben might also have been given his marching orders last night.
I'm glad they weren't, and I think they were the correct calls, but another night and another referee, and any of those incidents could have been cards.

[JM2K6]

This contact (no card) gave Mapimpi a blowout fracture of his cheekbone. Still rate him as our best left wing. No chance this Bok management plays injured players or keeps them in the squad, that's his RWC done then. Replacement called up before the quarter, wonder how close Am is.

I see World Rugby has taken the video down, first something on that, then back to this piece of awful refereeing. World Rugby are doing a good job of preventing as much visibility of the RWC as possible, almost every video is taken down within hours. The official highlights they put out are rubbish, mostly just tries and sometimes not all of the tries. No compilations of scrums, lineouts, tackles. The people running this sport don't actually understand what generates new interest in rugby, it's not BaaBaas tries, it's all the things World Rugby is ashamed of: the macho stuff, the physical contact, the complexity. NFL has pretty touchdowns, but the people running that sport know what the USP of their sport is and aren't ashamed of it (it's not the touchdowns).

Back to this appalling bit of refereeing. Pearce says it's foul play because there's head contact between a tackler and ball carrier, and awards a penalty but no card. He says Mapimpi is "already falling to his knees" (he is not) and there is a "low degree of danger". Mapimpi was immediately down and out, if he wasn't out cold it was something close to that, Pearce decided to play on just like Brace did when Grant Williams was knocked out cold against the Pumas and play continued with a motionless prostrate Williams right next to the ruck/play. It was immediately obvious Mapimpi was fucked, it was such an obvious concussion there was no HIA and he was immediately subbed off. His face was visibly swollen. I have no clue how Pearce decides there is a "low degree of danger" like it's something subjective he can decide, when the player was badly injured from what he had decided was foul play.

Every Bok match I've said there's neck holds/head shots/borderline seatbelt tackles, mostly going in on our wide runners and our close in ball carriers. None of it gets called, now a Bok wing has a serious head injury, from ball carrier/tackler contact that World Rugby is focusing heavily on and it's just a penalty.

Eh, wasn't he saying the tackler was falling to his knees? Which was true - he was on his knees when contact was made.

Aside from that I agree regarding degree of danger etc, the refs have clearly been instructed to find every possibly reason to avoid red cards and the bunker may as well not exist. So many stone cold reds have been bottled off the field, and this one was still a yellow IMO.