Former France hooker Benjamin Kayser has said the Springboks got “hard done” in Paris, claiming the referee warned France that their next scrum penalty would bring a yellow card and then did not show one.
Kayser was speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby the morning after the France v South Africa Test, which France won 21-19 at the Stade de France in the Nations Championship. He had watched the match in the ITV studio alongside former Springboks wing Bryan Habana.
France led 21-7 at half-time. Five cards were shown: France had Maxime Lucu, Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang and Régis Montagne sin-binned, while the Springboks lost Lood de Jager to a yellow and Jasper Wiese to a yellow upgraded to a 20-minute red.
READ MORE: Rassie Erasmus: ‘Just human’ for ref to stop penalising France
‘Next penalty’
Kayser picked out one passage in the second half, when the Springboks scrum had France pinned near their own line.
“There’s one element where I actually think Springboks got hard done, to be fair,” he said. “It’s around the 60th minute … there’s this repetition of scrum where, I mean, we were really under pressure.”
He said the referee then warned France that the next scrum penalty would bring a yellow card. A penalty followed, he said, but no card.
“He said next penalty he’s out and he wasn’t,” Kayser continued. “Why did he change his mind? I don’t know. Is it the pressure?
“I think on that one they got hard done with.”
The referee was Italy’s Andrea Piardi. France prop Régis Montagne was sin-binned after a run of Springboks scrum penalties.
‘It’s the tucked arm’
Kayser opened his answer with some sympathy for the man in the middle.
“I don’t want to be a referee, exactly, for a game like that, which is just impossible,” he said, adding that “either you ask for too many replays and you get told … the rhythm of the game is poor”.
He backed Piardi on the try ruled out just before half-time, saying simply: “It’s the rule.”
He also had no complaint about the red card for Wiese, who was first shown yellow early in the second half for a dangerous clean-out on Kalvin Gourgues.
“[Wiese] is a red,” Kayser said. “It’s the tucked arm, the problem. It’s not really the clean, it’s rugby … I think Maxime Lucu was a yellow.
“The only issue for South Africans I think is they should have had at least one more yellow because of the overwhelming domination in the scrum.”
‘Not blaming the ref’
Rassie Erasmus was asked about the scrum penalties after the match and put the blame on his own side.
“That’s why I’m saying I’m not blaming the ref. I’m saying that’s where we must sometimes think what is going through the referee’s head. Maybe the call should have been let’s kick for touch and maul it rather, because it’s tough to give seven penalties in a row and another yellow card,” the Springboks head coach said at his post-match press conference.
Malcolm Marx scored a late try for the Springboks, but Manie Libbok’s conversion missed and France held on. The Springboks face Ireland in Dublin next, with the Nations Championship finals weekend at Twickenham from 27 to 29 November.
Watch Benjamin Kayser on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby:
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