Siya’s yellow is for a glancing shot to the face, I would not be suprised if an angle comes out showing his hair not his head kissed the defenders face. Siya is also slightly bent
Canes tackle is a straight red

I think Barnes got the Savea call right the 1st time.
Savea is a participant in that tackle. He dived on the ball the minute the player hit the ground which means the player never actually got the chance to place the ball. Don’t think it’s as cut and dried as people are making it.
All Blacks left 5 kicking points on the table too

So glad for the All Blacks that Foster is leaving his statement is completely nuts.
As a Springbok fan I will admit we got lucky caus the Boks seem to freeze other than “Whispering Death” PSDT
But Siya’s yellow is for a glancing hit to the face, I would not be suprised if an angle comes out showing his hair not his head kissed the defenders face. Siya is also slightly bent
Canes tackle is a straight red

Couple of questions
So how many townships did you visit?
Just so I don’t jump to conclusions, you’re saying SA Rugby had more integrity in the 80’s than it has now?

Slow your horses, most rugby people want the All Blacks to win – All Blacks are like Man U – and just for context I support Man U.

😂 , So happy an Aussie wrote this article not a Saffer

I don’t agree with yhis article, but people makung the most od a short career is just rational

Most SA Rugby players whi go overseas eventually invest the money they make locally by way of example Bakkies Botha, Ruan Pienaar, Frans Steyn and CJ Stander have all moved their families back to South Africa.

You don’t sound like you have ever worked or engaged in South Africa ever.
You basically have a Xhosa native speaker who went to school in English trying to comminicate with Afrikaans speaking people in a mix of English and Afrikaans. Then an English native speaker asserts that what was said was meant in a particular way. Any language expert, even people who conclude guilt, on the balance of probability, (Which in itself is a low proof hurdle given what it would mean for for the accused) would understand the nuances at play and tell you this is not an open and shut matter.

writing this is not an attack of springbok rugby does not make it so.

Springboks are not even the biggest team,https://twitter.com/AnalystGus/status/1715665109052186744?t=cQZE_kSvK0lpFvXnp-kQ7g&s=19

Winning is more fun when everyone wants you to lost, Ask Steve Waugh and Ricky Pontings Aussie teams.

What did France do for the last 13 minutes after then final Bok penalty?Not like it was then last action in the Game.
Boks just scored an unanswered try and a penalty with 4 minutes to spare in the rain

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

Surely today cannot be better than yesterday, as Squid said “Rugby was happening”. Epic, and I say all this as a Saffer still waiting for the Boks. A doff of the hat to the Irish, 13 nil, 18 10, 25 17, anf then the collapsed mall- a try for all money, Barrett is a machine, they fought all the way, man. Bringing that home in that way, might have been worth the WWE Trophy on it’s own, Wow – What a game. Never be to sure of yourself against the All Blacks.

Not convinced All Blacks can put together another 80 like that though, Argies are gonna ride them all the way. Beaten them twice in the last 4 years so they know how.

I think if you are a minnow you get a better outcome with TMO’s. Referee’s personal bias is much bigger factor without oversight.

Agree that we should limit the things the TMO can intervene on though

I am hesistant to say I don’t mind going back to how it was before because I felt Australasian officials intepretations favoured Kiwi and Aussie sides over Saffer teams in Super Rugby and it got much better with the introduction of TMO’s.

At the same time after watching the NRL final, Fiji v Wales and Japan v Argentina I accept that there is a lot to be said for the entertainment value of a faster game.

Anyway here’s to the Argentina sinking the Welsh, the All Blacks rolling the Irish,
Fiji shocking the Poms and the Springboks breaking French hearts. 😂

I think your confused. I don’t support the All Blacks, I support the Springboks.

This is not a partisan opinion, been watching New Zealand for 30 yrs and I value their contribution to World Rugby.

Here’s a prediction for you Robertson will be better than Foster guaranteed. Might not win every game but he’ll be better by miles, you are the one who is going to say Foster built the team he succeeds with next year without acknowledging how much better the players are under Robertson but I digress.

Tony you article seems to imply that Rassie is predictably biased and Trimble and Kearney are impartial.

But the reality is Rassies explanation was right and borne out by the judiciary. You don’t even explain than Trimble and Kearney are lying when they say the incident was not assessed at the time. Brendan Nel (South African Journalist) had a Youtube video where he unpacked the differences.

Maybe rugby would have less drama if journalists and former players walked us through what happened and why the officials interpreted things a certain way.

Jacko you are entitled to your opinion as am I but I think the mistake you are making is to imply the All Blacks downward trend is unrelated to the coaching choice the All Blacks made.

The Crusaders also thought Deans was just a coach, then he left and they waited a decade for another Super Rugby title.

Fans like you thought anyone could be an effective All Black coach because Henry and Hansen were effective. Foster has just proven you wrong.

The All Blacks will be immediately better under Robertson gradually at 1st and then better long term. It’s like how the Springboks had potential under Coetzee and improved leaps and bounds under Erasmus.

Yes rugby is just a game, most projects you undertake in life are not life and death but that does not mean mediocrity born of carelessness is okay.

The All Blacks have lost their last 2 matches by an average of 20 points, has that ever happened in history? France has won their last two matches against the All Blacks by an average of 15 points.

Do you really think France is 15 points better than the All Blacks or maybe just maybe they are lacking in leadership.

Have a pleasant day.

The interesting thing to me about today is the New Zealand reaction.
The All Blacks have lost their last two test matches to France by 15 points.
Their last two matches by an average of 20 points.
They dropped 10 balls last night, there is one that it burned into my memory, the six dropped a pass that was reminiscent of what the Boks used to do when we were at our worst.
Fosters response is to imply that it’s okay because the Boks won in 2019 and the All Blacks have previously won all their pool games and not won the world cup. 😔
Sorry to bring it up, but I just don’t think Robertson would ever do that or even Schmidt. Foster had been a terrible hire however all this plays out, and the All Blacks are gonna spend a long time fixing the mess.

We are enjoying the URC and Champions Cup.
In Cape Town for Christmas gonna catch the Stormers Bulls Derby on Friday and the Lions game in New Years Eve.
Gonna be awesome.

She should email Elon. She obviously has a problem with Trolls.

If we want to live in a world with no Trolls just make people register on these sites with an Identification number and their real name.

Half of you would then be back talking about civil liberties

Some of you are just here conflating a whole lot of things that don’t go together.

A French guy just grabbed an official and got 12 games. But videos are a life ban.

I new this article would go down badly though, especially after the title 😂

Credit where it is due, a doff of the hat to the English.

I do believe we are about to see whether Southgate’s England has finally arrived at the top echelon of world football though – Nothing like having to pry a title from a Champion to let you know what you are made of. Especially one like the French who are no far off their pomp, gonna be manic.

On the whole, for all the shenanigans to get us here this is shaping up to be a top quality climax.

Also for all the VAR criticisms it does seem like the best 8 teams in the world are gonna be in the quarters although the Italians may contest that.

This is no small feat as usually by now there have been one or two inexplicable dodgy calls with the better team going out, whereas this tournament whilst it has had some contentious calls, there has only been one call that can has been shown to be technically wrong and for this I commend FIFA.

A lot of people don’t understand that the number one indicator of success in tournament play, especially once 90% of the teams are top class, is not the ability to do a million amazing things but to keep errors to a minimum. The whole thing turns into something for purists, holds true wherever the top 5 to 10 sides are of relatively equal quality in Football there are probably 15 teams at the moment

This tournament is about to get serious. Picking the 8 big teams to win, except maybe England 😂
QF’s onwards is going to be top class if a little dreary, Suggests Spainish will go deep and Dutch and Croats are dark horses, English are an interesting middle of the way, does not favour more stylish teams like French, Portuguese and Brazilians.
In terms if the other teams, Japanese appear most likely to upset the applecart, but Senegal will have a real go at England tonight

The biggest positive about VAR for me is that not one of the teams that is out has come out claiming to have been cheated or a victim of human error.
I think a lot of people need to think back to Lampard in 2010 in Bloemfontein and Henry at the Stade de France or Maradona and his hand of God.
Nothing does more to destroy the credibility of results or the integrity of sport than the perception of injustice. VAR has rendered this non-existent. The most amazing thing for me has been the Japanese goal where due to an optical illusion the decision is highly contentious, but every rational person can be shown the law and given video and they understand the decision. They may not like it but they understand.

A word about VAR.
Nothing has done more to bring about fairness in Football and wipe out bias than VAR.

Without it many of the instances where officials would have been required to make an unpopular calls against big sides would never have happened.

Many tight calls especially regarding offside have been adjudicated correctly if controversially whereas in the past the loudest voice would have carried the day.

There are many things FIFA has done I don’t agree with but I commend them for VAR. It is not perfect but it is fair, which is more than can be said for many other sports.

Hansie took bribes so in my view we are not comparing apples.

But I acknowledge your right to disagree. As I said a lot of people don’t agree with me on this and I accept that not everything Rassie has done is beyond reproach.

But in my view is in the long run it will just be background noise in his story which has been predominantly amazing as I outlined earlier.