World Rugby has identified “five major errors”in Ben O’Keeffe’s handling of the South Africa vs France quaterfinal – but only three benefitted the winning Springboks.
French outlet Midi OIympique reported the World Rugby findings.
The French captain Antoine Dupont claimed the Kiwi ref was not up to the challenge of the quarter-final won by South Africa 29-28 last weekend.
It included a controversial charge down from Cheslin Kolbe of Thomas Ramos’ conversion attempt – that has divided the internet with various versions of the incident shared ever since.
Kolbe ran from his own tryline to block Ramos’s kick.
Midi Olympique says a World Rugby analysis of referee O’Keeffe’s performance showed Kolbe left the tryline too early, and the conversion should have been re-taken.
The other decisions included a a dangerous clean-out by Pieter-Steph du Toit in the 17th minute – for which World Rugby say the Bok flanker should have been yellow carded – and Kwagga Smith’s halfway-line turnover in the second half, which Handre Pollard converted for South Africa’s winning points.
World Rugby also reportedly ruled that France winger Damian Penaud should have been yellow carded for a dangerous tackle on Eben Etzebeth in the ninth minute, and Cameron Woki should have been penalised for offside when Faf de Klerk threw a pass into the French forward as he laid on the ground. De Klerk was trying to pass to Handre Pollard for a likely drop-goal attempt.
“According to our information, during the analysis of the referees’ performance by World Rugby, the quarter-final between the Blues and the Springboks included five major “errors”. Three are against the French, two in their favor,” a translation of the Midi Olympique story reads,
“As after each match, the match of Ben O’Keeffe and his assessors was obviously reviewed and analyzed in depth by his World Rugby supervisors, who recognized several errors in his management of the match. According to our information, five of them can be considered major, including three to the disadvantage of the XV of France.”
Rassie misogny row
South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has been accused of misogyny after blocking a journalist on social media platform X.
Erasmus picked a fight with Ben Smith, who works for the World Rugby-affiliated RugbyPass site, before deleting the post.
Rassie referred to Smith as “her” three times, later claiming it was a “typo”. “Guys let’s ignore her please! Block her and let her bask in peace!! Us Lions does not care about the opinion of a sheep,” wrote Erasmus, 48 hours out from the Springboks’ World Cup semi-final against England in Paris.
British journalist Jessica Hayden responded: “Using ‘her’ as an insult. In 2023. When his players tweeted their support of their women’s team only hours before this. Lovely stuff from a lovely man.”
Rugby analyst Will Owen chimed in with: “So is the joke that Rassie thinks women don’t understand rugby”, while another added: “How is being a female an insult?”
Erasmus’ posts came a day after he complained about a death threat aimed at one of his players from a French source.
South Africa have condemned the “hooligans” who sent a death threat to their halfback Cobus Reinach.
Montpellier player Reinach was targeted on social media in the wake of his country’s 29-28 quarter-final victory over hosts France.
Erasmus highlighted the abuse directed at the 33-year-old by posting a screen grab on his X account.
South Africa assistant coach Mzwandile Stick, who said Reinach is in a “good space”, praised the security levels at the tournament and believes the matter is being handled by the French authorities.
“We’re well aware of the situation with Cobus and his family,” Stick said on Friday on the eve of facing England in Paris.
“We don’t have a place for hooligans in our game. The players do their job to make sure they represent their country and we are here to represent South Africa.
Cobus Reinach #9 of Team South Africa in action during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Quarter Final match between France and South Africa at Stade de France on October 15, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Xavier Laine/Getty Images)
“If somebody has got a problem with that, I think the French authorities will have to deal with that.
“But from our side, we’ll make sure we protect each other: our players, management, everyone involved.
“We don’t have a place for that in the game. You win some, lose some as part of the game.
“Whoever sent that message to the player, I’m really disappointed about that.
“We’ll keep doing everything in our powers to make sure we make our people proud at home.
“Regarding the situation, I think it’s well handled now by the French authorities.”
Reinach, who played in England for Northampton between 2017 and 2020, will start against Steve Borthwick’s side at the Stade de France as part of an unchanged South Africa line-up.
The message sent to him, translated from French, read: “Dirty son of a b****. I hope that when you return to Montpellier you get murdered by French people on the ground. Gang of thieves. Easy to win a title by cheating.”
Many France supporters criticised the performance of the match officials following their elimination at the hands of the Springboks, while Les Bleus captain Antoine Dupont suggested New Zealand referee Ben O’Keeffe was not “up to the level of the game”.
Asked how Reinach is feeling, Stick replied: “He’s proper. I’ve seen him every day.
“He’s in a good space, he’s got his family around him.
“In our camp, we must also give credit to the French security around our hotels. With all the teams, the security is just another level.
“I don’t think at the moment there is something to worry about because we know for sure we are well protected in our camps.”
Champions South Africa are overwhelming favourites to progress from Saturday’s (Sunday AEDT) game and remain on course to retain the crown they claimed against England in Yokohama four years ago.
Guess
Roar Rookie
Anti kiwi? Lol that's you projecting. You're trying to defend him only because he's kiwi. My favourite ref is Williams btw, don't know why he isn't reffing as much
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Again, world rugby, who I would suggest know more than you, disagree. Well done making this an anti-kiwi thing though, that’s a stretch but you made it.
Passit2me
Roar Rookie
I’ll be editing for Rassie’s video. Oh wait, no I won’t…
Guess
Roar Rookie
Nah french were up to standard your not up to standard ref made them look bad
Guess
Roar Rookie
What do you consider initiating the kick?
Guess
Roar Rookie
Wr is a joke similar to sanzaar only bigger
Guess
Roar Rookie
It wasn’t 5 errors it was 5 major errors learn to read hypocrite
Messy Jog
Roar Rookie
Exactly. Faf is a terrific player and is every bit as big a ham as Nic White and Aaron Smith! He would absolutely have hit the deck if one of them accidentally slapped him in the face instead of the ball. No doubt all the Saffer fans would have remained objective as ever and called him a cheat for life just as they did when NW did the same.
Loosey
Roar Rookie
No one could accuse Faf of being subtle.
Messy Jog
Roar Rookie
BOK was on a hiding to nothing on that particular call; Woki was off side but was trying to get out of play, and the only reason Faf passed the ball downwards into his opponent was to force the ref to give a match sealing penalty against a player who wasn’t interfering in play. For mine BOK made the right call in the circumstances.
Loosey
Roar Rookie
It bounced off Woki, was knocked on by another SA player into his own man on the ground, accidental offside called.
soapit
Roar Guru
the charge down rule is pretty impossible to be conclusive on these close ones. i dont think its fair to blame bok for that, trying to watch timing on two players 25m apart. if anything its a tmo thing. close enough to go either way but it depends on whats classed as starting run up which is often very subjective. if players were successful more often theyd probably do away with it, or at least define the starting point better. complement to kolbe that he managed to make it an issue.
Harry Jones
Expert
But it’s a weird call to LOSE the ball, no?
CPM
Roar Rookie
BOK made 5 errors while the incompetent Berry admitting to his boss at World Rugby that he made 17 errors in one match. Subpar NZAR referees, subpar.
Dean
Roar Rookie
Both O'Keefe and Gardner had sub standard performances in their last matches. Very disappointing.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
It’s worth noting that, objectively, the French were not up to standard. And they are NOT there next week.
Loosey
Roar Rookie
Whilst Woki was technically offside, Faf did pass the ball straight into his behind. The pass would likely not gone to hand and looked like an attempt to milk a penalty by bringing Woki into the play. I saw it like BOK did, on first viewing, and thought he handled it well, intelligent refereeing. But I don’t like players ‘planking’ at the back of the ruck, in an attempt to give the impression of not being in the way but at the same time slowing down the play ever so slightly.
Greco Dominicus
Roar Rookie
Apparently Jamie Wall runs Ben SmithRugby under a psuedonym. 'A rugby journalist who only has 1 photo, never appears on TV, no podcasts, no YouTube channel, never been seen at a game, never does touchline reports. Fake account, not a real person. Evidence is there." Account is used to troll South African rugby fans, which is terrible form given that RugbyPass is a WorldRugby organisation. It's in a similar tone to the account set-up by Kevin Pietersens team mates when he played for England. We South Africans probably take ourselves a little to seriously and English not being our 1st language means sarcasm is often misunderstood. I blocked the account, at my age I don't have energy for trolls. It is interesting though, caus if you read the articles on rugbypass and some of the things he raises are valid for example - How an argument could be made that neither New Zealand or South Africa have been the best team through the cycle and France or Ireland would be more worthy of the world champion mantle. But the tone of the articles are designed to irritate South Africans. (His tagline is "undefeated by SA Rugby Twitter.) I not there is another youngman pushing a similar line on TikTok - KieranRhysThomas, although he uses his actual account not a burner and does not work for World Rugby. Obviously people have realised there is money to be made doing this
Good Game
Roar Rookie
It's not the first time Rassie's reacted poorly to something though.
carnivean
Roar Rookie
Classless post.