Springbok captain Johann Muller said referees are afraid of sin-binning All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw following his team’s 33-6 Tri-Nations defeat on Saturday.
He said Australian referee Stuart Dickinson should have yellow-carded the All Black captain for an identical offence to one that later led to the sin-binning of South Africa flanker Pedrie Wannenburg when the sides were level at 6-6.
The All Blacks scored six points while Wannenburg was of the field before running in three tries in the final 11 minutes.
”If Richie McCaw had blond hair and wore a green jersey or had dreadlocks and wore a yellow jersey, he would never finish a test,” said Muller, referring to Springbok flank Schalk Burger and the Wallabies’ openside George Smith.
”You want to play a fair game and you want to have a fair go at the breakdown, and he [McCaw] is really making it difficult for us.
”The first infringement was down in their 22 and the words were ‘playing the ball on the ground’ and that was exactly the same words at the other end. The only extra word was ‘cynical’ — and I’m not exactly sure what that means.
South Africa coach Jake White agreed that the sin-binning was decisive. ”You can’t play a team like the All Blacks with 14 men with their athletic ability,” he said. ”If they had played with 14 men, who knows what might have happened? You could tell that the crowd sensed that they weren’t on their game.”
All Blacks coach Graham Henry said his team had taken a step forward, despite taking 69 minutes to score their first try against a weakened South Africa who left 20 leading players at home to prepare for the Rugby World Cup.
”We played most of the rugby and looked like scoring most of the tries and probably got a bit frustrated that we didn’t score early,” Henry said. ”That led to a lack of patience and discipline, but I think it was a good step forward.”
The Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup will be decided in Auckland on Saturday when the All Blacks host the Wallabies. Both teams have nine points in the Tri-Nations standings.
”There’s a huge Test match next week,” Henry said. ”I think it’s great for the game of rugby.” — Reuters