{"id":695216,"date":"2026-07-16T17:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695216\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:36:09","slug":"nigel-owens-springboks-try-should-have-been-ruled-out-after-illegal-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695216\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Owens: Springboks try should have been ruled out after ‘illegal’ action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Respected former Test referee Nigel Owens believes that a Springboks<\/a> try should have been ruled out with Scotland awarded a penalty.<\/p>\n

South Africa had just gone 7-0 ahead through Embrose Papier\u2019s score and Handre Pollard\u2019s conversion when Scotland\u2019s restart was well collected by Cobus Wiese.<\/p>\n

The incident<\/p>\n

The Boks<\/a> lock was lifted into the air by Boan Venter but, instead of immediately putting him down, he carried Wiese forwards with him above his shoulders.<\/p>\n

Scottish<\/a> players, given that under World Rugby\u2019s laws, are not allowed to take a player out in the air, or the person supporting them, decided not to engage.<\/p>\n

That enabled the Springboks second-row to then get back on the ground and break clear of the visiting defence before off-loading to Paul de Villiers, who took play up to the 22.<\/p>\n

After a few more phases, Evan Roos touched down to hand the hosts a 14-0 lead, which would prove absolutely crucial with the defending world champions going on to claim a 42-28 triumph.<\/p>\n

Owens<\/a> was asked on the latest episode of World Rugby\u2019s Whistle Watch about the incident and whether it could be deemed obstruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cObstruction tends to happen if you\u2019re in front of a ball carrier, your own team-mate, and preventing an opposition player getting at it,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not obstruction but what this is, is a player in the air with a ball, you cannot touch him and you can\u2019t touch the guys who\u2019s supporting him in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though technically this is not obstruction, it is an action that prevents the defence from defending this because the player with the ball is in the air and being carried forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

World Rugby admit to error over Springboks star\u2019s yellow card as Nigel Owens wants \u2018grey area\u2019 cleared up<\/a><\/p>\n

Owens\u2019 judgement<\/p>\n

With the Scotland players therefore unable to make a tackle due to the actions of Venter and Wiese, Owens therefore judged that the Springboks duo infringed and should have therefore been penalised with the try being scrubbed off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the Scottish players, one of them sort of goes, \u2018I don\u2019t want to touch him and give a penalty away\u2019, and that should be the trigger for you to go that this act is now illegal because you\u2019re preventing a player from wilfully defending this situation,\u201d he added<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he lifts him up momentarily to catch the ball and bring him straight down, that\u2019s allowed and there\u2019s no offence taken place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst that is happening, you have to let the player come back down \u2013 that\u2019s all perfectly legal \u2013 but once you hold him up there, or you start moving forward, the trigger should be, are you now preventing a defender from defending that?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the answer is yes, then that action is not allowed. I would say in this instance here the Scottish player is going, \u2018I can\u2019t defend this\u2019, and therefore that should have been a penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: World Rugby stamp down on ref-bashing as Italy boss slapped first ban after Shape of the Game agreement<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Respected former Test referee Nigel Owens believes that a Springboks try should have been ruled out with Scotland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,134497,50,22275,5903,200,4247,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-695216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-nations-championship","tag-news","tag-nigel-owens","tag-rugby","tag-scotland","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695216","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=695216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}