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Nigel Owens weighs in on match-defining moment as South Africa beat England
By Josh Raisey
Former referee Nigel Owens has labelled the decision to penalise England at the scrum in the final minutes of their World Cup semi-final against South Africa as "very, very, debatable," saying it goes down to the referee's interpretation on the day.
Referee Ben O'Keeffe penalised replacement loosehead Ellis Genge for driving across against South Africa late in the semi-final, whereby Handre Pollard stepped up and converted the resulting penalty kick to give the world champions a 16-15 victory.
On Whistle Watch this week, the Welshman discussed that decision and explained why O'Keeffe came to it, all while highlighting the infringement Genge's opposite man Vincent Koch was perceived to have committed.
"Now, big talking point in that wonderful, exciting and intense game was the last penalty in the scrum," Owens said.
"There are a lot of things to look at here. So do we have Ellis Genge going to his knee? Yes, we do. Now what tends to happen, if a player goes to his knee, the referee will deal with that there and then. The referee here decides that Ellis Genge gets back up on his feet, so he continues the scrum. What happens next is we have Ellis Genge going across, but also some of you have quite rightly highlighted that you have the tighthead of South Africa [Vincent Koch] also going across.
"So what the referee has to deal with here, he has to deal with what he believes is the first offence. So for him, the first offence is the knee on the ground. The South Africa tighthead going across then, for him, is the second offence. So it's one of those very, very debatable ones. The only thing I would say, if you are going to penalise a knee on the ground, then you need to penalise it when it happens. Not afterwards when something else has happened. It's a little bit like the contact area. There's no point you coming in and penalising the second or the third offence, and not penalising the first one. It will then be too late to go back to it.
"So, in this instance here, the referee penalised Ellis Genge for going across, because he feels the action on the knee has contributed to that. It's a very, very tough call and to be honest it's one that comes down to your interpretation as a referee on the day."
The scrum came off the back of 20 minutes of dominance at the set piece from South Africa, as their vaunted 'Bomb Squad' helped book their place in the World Cup final against the All Blacks on Saturday.
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I've always had a non-emotional approach to analysing sports. In fact, I must be deficient in patriotic genes. I find my perch on the mound of realism, not positivity. If it was simply a case of hopping into the positive wagon, we would never have any dilemmas. Human values play a pivotal role, too. In that vein, it was obvious to me and some that Scott Robertson wasn't going to cut it as captaincy material. Mind you, Richie McCaw had started in that mould but he was still cutting his teeth. However, I agree that one did need to turf his playmaker book in several respects. The fundamental question for me is if Razor has appointed an attacking coach, why then not listen to him when push comes to shove? It's a formula for destruction. That has come to pass with Jordan's shortcomings, never mind the others who have been shuffled out of position. I think it's a little myopic to adhere steadfastly to the if you leave the country you're not in the ABs' equation. It had worked in the yesteryear but it's the 21st century now and professionalism dictates the tempo. Players rightly see the game as a job within a narrow window. They should be given the option to ply their trade abroad to make money. Unfortunately, the ABs have treated some players shabbily. The bromance with the black jersey is a myth nowadays. It's just a means to a lucrative payday as a bullet point on one's CV. Who can blame them? Besides, the "tiny nation" concept is relative to when rugby union was an even smaller fish pond. Factor in Sth Africa in the exile for obvious reasons and it puts that in perspective. A smaller NZ also means more resources per player from grassroots level to bigger countries as opposed to island nations. It's all relative.
Go to commentsRagebaiting at this point mate.
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