2023-10-16 07:03:00
The blue dream stopped dead by the Springboks. South Africa won the great shock of the quarter-finals of the World Cup against France on Sunday evening in Saint-Denis, with a very close score of 29 to 28. The South Africans took the lead definitively at the entrance to the last quarter of an hour of a match of extreme intensity, thanks to a try. Despite the support of their 80,000 spectators, the XV of France failed with nothing.
This 29-28 defeat against the reigning world champions is, of course, neither dishonorable nor really surprising given the level of the opponent. However, it remains frustrating for the players, like Antoine Dupont who questioned the refereeing at a press conference. “And what did you think of the arbitration? It’s good to have an outside opinion… There’s a lot of disappointment, frustration, but we can’t wait to see the images again: I think we’re going to have even more frustrations,” said the captain of the Blues.
“Not sure that the arbitration was up to the challenge”
“There are clear and obvious things that are easy to whistle on that weren’t. I don’t know if the match was lost at that moment but, in the crucial moments, we could have had a penalty: when we have advanced 60 meters and we slow down a ruck… I don’t want to to act bitter and complain about the referee because he lost the match, but I’m not sure that the refereeing was up to the challenge today,” adds the scrum-half. READ ALSO Serge Raffy – Rugby World Cup: don’t touch Dupont Gueule Cassée!
The alleged refereeing errors do not take any credit away from South Africa’s victory. “That doesn’t take anything away from the performance of the South Africans, who showed experience, who dominated us in the fight. They had a great match,” recognized Antoine Dupont.
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