Referee Paul Honiss hit back at Jake White on Sunday after the Springbok’s coach laid part of the blame for South Africa’s 49-0 Tri-Nations rugby loss to Australia at the feet of the New Zealand official.
White said Honiss had allowed the Wallabies to ”get away with murder” in Saturday’s Suncorp Stadium match in which the Boks slumped to their heaviest loss to Australia and came within a point of the worst defeat in their history.
”I was listening to [former Wallaby] Rod Kafer on the TV wrap-up of the game afterwards and I thought he was dead right when he said Paul Honiss blew poorly,” White said. ”I’m not blaming him for the loss but when big calls early on go against you then it definitely knocks you back.
”Australia got away with murder at the breakdowns,” he said. ”I thought a couple of calls could have gone our way, but instead he kept pinging us. I thought they were lying all over the ball.”
South Africa captain John Smit took up the theme, saying Honiss’ performance assisted Australia.
”They were allowed to flow. Every time we put them under a bit of pressure he would penalise us for offsides and every time we got our hands on the ball he said it was hands in the ruck,” Smith said.
”We didn’t have much chance at the rucks, I think we only got one penalty there. I saw a whole bunch of hands in the rucks that weren’t ours.”
Honiss, who controlled his 38th test match on Saturday to become New Zealand’s most-capped international referee, hit back on Sunday, suggesting the Springboks were placing blame in the wrong area.
”Who am I the scapegoat for this week? Obviously Jake White,” Honiss said. ”If they’re going to point the finger at me then they’re obviously not focussing on the right things for next week.”
Honiss blew 13 penalties against South Africa and six against Australia, blaming South Africa’s rush defence for their frequent off-sides.
”That rush defence of theirs wasn’t working,” he said. ”I had an IRB [referees] selector [assessing the game] … he said you had five penalties for that [off-side] in the first half, you could have doubled it.
”He said you couldn’t back down because if you backed down they would have walked all over you.”
White predicted his own sacking in the week before the Brisbane Test, then produced a performance that might have justified dismissal. His team expected to dominate Australia in the forwards, as New Zealand had done a week earlier, but failed to apply pressure at set pieces and were outplayed in the loose.
”There’s nothing much you can say after you lose like that. This really was a poor performance by the players,” White said.
”Australia played well but I thought we would have been more competitive.”
Recalled centre Matt Giteau scored two tries on Saturday as the Wallaby backs thrived behind an improved forward pack.
Jeremy Paul, Greg Holmes, Chris Latham and Mark Chisholm also scored tries, while Stirling Mortlock kicked 19 points.
”It was a phenomenal win — beating South Africa 49-0 is not an every day occurrence. The forwards had a point to prove and they did it well,” Wallabies coach John Connolly said.
”We took the foot off the pedal in the second half and left a lot of tries out there,” he said.
”But it gives us a lot of confidence for the next game against New Zealand.”
The Springboks face New Zealand in their next Tri-Nations test at Wellington on Saturday. – Sapa-AP