Former Test referee Nigel Owens says Nic White should have been penalised for his histrionics in Adelaide, while also hitting out at World Rugby’s new “soft” TMO check.
During the first Test between the Springboks and Wallabies, White successfully conned referee Paul Williams into sending Faf de Klerk to the sin bin after the Bok scrumhalf made contact with his opposite number’s face at the scrum.
“What I would have done is your first offence is De Klerk getting it wrong, completely accidental, no intent, it’s a penalty,” Owens wrote in a column for WalesOnline. “What you have then is a totally unacceptable reaction from Nic White and against the values of the game.
“So I would have reversed the penalty and penalised him for his actions. I would have said to him ‘You are not in the theatre, you are on the rugby field, where are your rugby values? You can’t behave like that.’
“Nic White shouldn’t have got away with it and should have had a good stern talking to about rugby values, at least, even if the referee decided against penalising him.”
The other controversial decision in the match saw Wallabies wing Marika Koroibete escape sanction for a no-arms tackle on Makazole Mapimpi, when the Bok winger looked set to score in the corner.
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“I have looked at it many times and I’m finding it difficult to see this as anything but an illegal tackle by Koroibete,” said Owens. “To me, he leads with his shoulder and his arm is tucked down by his side. There’s not an attempt to wrap, for me.
“He’s gone in with shoulder first and it should be a penalty and a yellow card. You are probably looking at a penalty try as well. It’s not the type of tackle I would like to see happening in every game.”
The Koroibete incident was only checked by the TMO as part of World Rugby’s new protocol to speed up the review process.
“To me, that is a complete disaster. The referee on the field needs to make these decisions. This shouldn’t be a TMO glancing at this and making a decision. The referee has to look at something like this and make the decision himself.”
Photo: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
