Cheslin Kolbe has been slammed for his actions during the scuffle with Leroy Carter during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Test match in Cape Town.
The Springboks and All Blacks wingers squared up during the latter stages of the clash in South Africa’s 33-26 victory in the second Test match after the former was bundled into touch.
Kolbe took exception to Carter’s actions thereafter, with the latter pulling the former to his feet after replacement scrum-half Kyle Preston had collected the ball.
Cheslin Kolbe ‘thuggery’
Once on his feet, the Bok winger appeared to push Carter, with many accusing Kolbe of punching the All Black, including outspoken New Zealand pundit Mark Watson, who believes the South African should have been punished.
“The thing that should have seriously happened, like why wasn’t Cheslin Kolbe sent from the field for punching Leroy Carter?” he said on DSPN.
“I mean, you send a player off for 10 minutes for deliberate knock-ons; you send players off for 10 minutes for some marginal head-high tackles.
“Leroy did absolutely nothing wrong. There was no provoking there at all. He stands up, and he basically slams him in the head with the left hook.
“If that was an All Black player, say Ardie Savea, the South Africans would have been all over that. That would have been every single meme; they would have been breaking it down and analysing it. He should have gone for at least 10 minutes. And that is one of the great frustrations for me as well. He got away with one.
“I think Rassie knows he got away with one as well.”
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Cheslin Kolbe’s punch/push
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Watson’s rant wasn’t done there, as he continued: “In all seriousness, this guy stood up and basically punched him in the head unprovoked. He was holding on to the ball; it wasn’t retaliation; it was blatant thuggery. I mean, if you do that in everyday life, you get arrested. Yet we can’t send a guy off for 10 minutes.”
All Blacks’ selection grip
Turning his attention to the coaches, Watson also took issue with Dave Rennie’s back-row selections for the second Test match as he believes that the head coach is selecting a team to counter South Africa’s strengths and not for what best suits the All Blacks.
“It is a fascinating one, isn’t it? It’s also interesting, I guess, that dynamic that we’re now starting to see with the psychological warfare off the field,” he said.
“One thing that frustrated me a little bit: I said last week on this program that I felt Rassie was maybe waving the white flag that he was feeling the pressure, because we saw the naming of that team, and it was pretty much the same starting XV, other than changes due to injury, which has not been the Rassie way.
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“You thought, ‘Okay maybe he’s going into a shell’ and then clearly by the time the South African team came out it was completely changed but we didn’t know what the All Black team was like and I felt that we actually went into our shell a little bit with the Simon Parker selections with Tupou Vaa’i going to lock, we were trying to match them with size we’re trying to play them at their game.
“I still would just like us to try and play our game. I look at that loose forward trio at the moment; it just doesn’t quite sit right with me. I feel we need a [Peter] Lakai in there, obviously, an Anton Segner or a Wallace Sititi. We’re moving away from our DNA to try and match their DNA, and it’s not working.”