Legendary Springboks forwards Schalk Burger and Victor Matfield have slammed the officiating of the United Rugby Championship (URC) final after the Bulls had two tries disallowed in the second half.
The men from Pretoria were completely outplayed at Croke Park in Dublin as they suffered a fourth defeat in the final, falling to an embarrassing 36-7 defeat.
However, Johan Ackermann’s charges weren’t helped by the officiating team, who disallowed two tries in the final 40 minutes, with centre Harold Vorster denied a five-pointer after he was judged to have been short of the line despite pleading his case to referee Andrea Piardi.
The Italian official made the on-field decision of no try but opted to review his call after Vorster insisted that he crossed the line, but TMO Matteo Liperini deemed the evidence was not clear and obvious enough to overrule the on-field call. That meant that Vorster was denied the try despite broadcasting angles showing the ball brushing the line.
Bulls have two tries disallowed in URC Final defeat
Bulls lock Ruan Nortje was the next to be denied as Liperini deemed that a pass from Canan Moodie in the build-up to the score went forward out of the midfielder’s hand. This time, the fourth official was adamant that it was clear and obvious, and Piardi agreed with his fellow countryman and denied Nortje the score.
“From this camera angle, it’s pretty clear to me,” Piardi said when reviewing Moodie’s pass.
“The ball leaves the hand forward. Matteo, this is the camera that we need to use. From this angle, it’s pretty clear that the ball leaves the hand forward. So we cancel the try, we come back.”
Speaking on SuperSport’s post-match coverage of the final, Burger said that these were the kind of decisions that go against you when playing in Ireland as he believed that Vorster scored.
“This is the 54th minute, and it’s the first time that the Bulls had been able to put Leinster under pressure pretty much the whole game,” he said.
“They had a small little entry in the first half where it came to nothing, overplayed the pack of forwards. Harold Vorster says he scored it. I think we saw a ball down there. It doesn’t get awarded. Unfortunately, when you play in Ireland, you don’t get a lot going for yourself.”
Referee and TMO fiction
Matfield agreed and also weighed in on Nortje’s try. He believes that TMO Liperini shouldn’t have got involved as the pass was not clear and obvious.
“Yeah, there I think that ball is over the line. I mean, you can see it, and TMO, that’s the only job we need to do,” he said.
“Here as well [Nortje’s try], remember the try was given, so you must be 100% sure. So this one angle, that’s out at the back of the hand. How can that go forward from there? I mean, again, away from home, that’s what happened, and that was at Loftus…”
Burger took a harder line in his review, stating that Piardi and Liperini fabricated the events in the build-up to Nortje’s try.
“It goes to our point, but so much fiction has been written between TMOs and referees. Definitely gone forward. It’s not definitely gone forward,” the former flanker remarked.
“On-field decision was a try, and we’ve got to find something over and above. That’s not a knock-on. It’s gone back at the back of the hand.”
Failure to shut Sam Prendergast down
However, he doesn’t believe that it would have mattered much as the Bulls were completely outclassed by the Irish province who became the first team to win the URC title twice.
“I don’t think it would have made any difference to the game. We look at the match stats, it’s utter dominance. Like it’s 60 high, 60 percent in both of them, 57 in possession,” he continued.
“I think the frustrating part is if you go to, you’ve got one shot in the final, Bulls have four of them now. Do you think they could have chanced their arm and have more line speed in defence and get to Prendergast?
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“Because I think ultimately he’s man of the match. He was pulling the strings. In the semi-final, where Stormers was going at them, it was so physical, he had no chance, he had no say in the game. He was caught short. He has to go into game management, which is not a strong suit.
“So I think maybe the Bulls… If they have their way over, they’ll have proper line speed, get to 9, get to 10. I said at half-time, how many times did they get to, how many times was Prendergast on the ground today? Never.
“How many times did they get to Gibson-Park? If they play against the Springboks, for example, we’re playing Finn Russell. Finn Russell will hit the deck eight times in the first 20 minutes. They get to him, and that’s the type of pressure you’ve got to exert. Otherwise, they’re just going to pull the strings and skin you alive like they did tonight.”
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