{"id":648059,"date":"2026-06-20T00:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T00:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/648059\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T00:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T00:21:12","slug":"springboks-legend-hits-out-at-urc-final-officials-for-fabricating-fiction-in-bulls-disallowed-tries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/648059\/","title":{"rendered":"Springboks legend hits out at URC Final officials for fabricating ‘fiction’ in Bulls’ disallowed tries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, Johan Ackermann\u2019s charges weren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Bulls have two tries disallowed in URC Final defeat<\/p>\n

Bulls<\/a> 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom this camera angle, it\u2019s pretty clear to me,\u201d Piardi said when reviewing Moodie\u2019s pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball leaves the hand forward. Matteo, this is the camera that we need to use. From this angle, it\u2019s pretty clear that the ball leaves the hand forward. So we cancel the try, we come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on SuperSport\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the 54th minute, and it\u2019s the first time that the Bulls had been able to put Leinster<\/a> under pressure pretty much the whole game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey 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\u2019t get awarded. Unfortunately, when you play in Ireland, you don\u2019t get a lot going for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leinster v Bulls: Five takeaways as \u2018not a shred\u2019 of Springboks\u2019 World Cup-winning pedigree evident against Irish giants who \u2018ruthlessly\u2019 charge to URC title<\/a><\/p>\n

Referee and TMO fiction<\/p>\n

Matfield agreed and also weighed in on Nortje\u2019s try. He believes that TMO Liperini shouldn\u2019t have got involved as the pass was not clear and obvious.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, there I think that ball is over the line. I mean, you can see it, and TMO, that\u2019s the only job we need to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere as well [Nortje\u2019s try], remember the try was given, so you must be 100% sure. So this one angle, that\u2019s out at the back of the hand. How can that go forward from there? I mean, again, away from home, that\u2019s what happened, and that was at Loftus\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Burger took a harder line in his review, stating that Piardi and Liperini fabricated the events in the build-up to Nortje\u2019s try.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes to our point, but so much fiction has been written between TMOs and referees. Definitely gone forward. It\u2019s not definitely gone forward,\u201d the former flanker remarked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn-field decision was a try, and we\u2019ve got to find something over and above. That\u2019s not a knock-on. It\u2019s gone back at the back of the hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bulls player ratings: Handre Pollard drops an \u2018absolute mare\u2019, departing Springbok \u2018robbed\u2019 as World Cup winners outplayed in \u2019embarrassing\u2019 URC Final defeat<\/a><\/p>\n

Failure to shut Sam Prendergast down<\/p>\n

However, he doesn\u2019t 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<\/a> title twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it would have made any difference to the game. We look at the match stats, it\u2019s utter dominance. Like it\u2019s 60 high, 60 percent in both of them, 57 in possession,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the frustrating part is if you go to, you\u2019ve 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?<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I think ultimately he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Leinster player ratings: Sam Prendergast\u2019s \u2018rehabilitation\u2019 and \u2018proper nuisance\u2019 forwards catch the eye in \u2019emphatic\u2019 culling of the Bulls<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think maybe the Bulls\u2026 If they have their way over, they\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many times did they get to Gibson-Park? If they play against the Springboks, for example, we\u2019re playing Finn Russell. Finn Russell will hit the deck eight times in the first 20 minutes. They get to him, and that\u2019s the type of pressure you\u2019ve got to exert. Otherwise, they\u2019re just going to pull the strings and skin you alive like they did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Sam Prendergast masterclass leads Leinster to thumping URC title success over disappointing Bulls<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary Springboks forwards Schalk Burger and Victor Matfield have slammed the officiating of the United Rugby Championship (URC)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[88635,348,65320,50,5903,47501,4247,101,56,54,16296,55,45921],"class_list":["post-648059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-bulls","tag-home-page","tag-leinster","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-schalk-burger","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-rugby-championship","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-victor-matfield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}