South Africans reckon there would have been a different outcome had the currently suspended Lood de Jager be playing for Ireland or England.
That is according to Springboks legend Jean de Villiers, who believes that the second-row forward has been very harshly treated.
De Jager was issued a permanent red card just before the interval during the Boks’ 32-17 victory over France in Saint-Denis and was then handed a four-week ban.
He appealed that suspension but, according to reports, it has been rejected by an independent disciplinary panel, much to the frustration of De Villiers.
Springboks conspiracy theory
The former Springboks skipper was appearing on Off The Ball when he was asked by the host: “Is there a feeling in South Africa if Lood de Jager was wearing a France jersey, an Ireland jersey, an England jersey, a different decision would have been reached?”
De Villiers responded: “To answer your question in short, I think yes,” before he discussed the red cards handed out to South Africa.
Franco Mostert followed De Jager in being sent-off when he was dismissed for a tackle on Italy’s Paolo Garbisi.
That permanent red has since been rescinded, but it has not stopped South African fans from speculating about the motives of those at the very top of the sport.
“We’re good at playing the victim but the reality is you’ve seen two permanent red cards in the autumn series and both were against South Africa,” De Villiers said.
“I’m almost sick and tired of talking about refereeing and all of that.
“I don’t understand anymore, I don’t know anymore when there’s a collision and when they go slow and go to the TMO, anything can happen.
“There’s no consistency anymore. You see two situations of things happening, head contact and for the one it’s a permanent red, and for the other it’s a yellow – I don’t understand that.”
The former South Africa captain did, however, then suggest that it is not only the Boks who are being impacted by some of the decision-making.
‘There’s no accountability’
“This is not just South Africa, I think this is the world over. How do we create consistency with the decisions being made, so that the viewer can also understand that?” he said.
“The bigger issue is there’s no accountability. We haven’t heard anything to say: ‘Well, this is the reason for this or that’s the reason for that’.
“At the end of the day we want to make the game as safe as possible and the new additions to the law and lowering the tackle height came in to be able to make the game safe, so we don’t have many concussions, so we look after our players.
“[But] Lood de Jager was on his knees when he made the tackle. He’s changing his behaviour 100 per cent.
“Rugby is a contact sport so sometimes there are going to be collisions. He gets a red card and a month off rugby for that – what can you do more?”
De Villiers therefore wants to see a more proactive approach from World Rugby, insisting that there has only been “silence” from those in charge.
“We don’t understand anymore, there’s no accountability and there’s just silence from a governing body point of view,” he added.
“We can take contact out of rugby, we can totally do that, and we call it touch rugby, but rugby is a contact sport.
“Unfortunately, sometimes there will be collisions where it doesn’t matter what the player does, it will be an unfortunate situation for one of those players.
“I don’t think Lood de Jager could have done anything differently in that circumstance.”
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