2023-10-22 13:13:33
Clearly, nothing will be forgiven for Ben O’Keeffe, whose reputation has been branded since the quarter-final of the Rugby World Cup between France and South Africa. Once again designated for the Springboks’ whistle this Saturday evening, for the semi-final against England, the New Zealand referee, criticized by the Stade de France, once again made a decision open to debate by awarding a penalty in the final minutes to the South Africans.
Trailing by two points at this moment of the match, they did not need to be asked to take the advantage over the XV de la Rose thanks to a penalty from scorer Handré Pollard, winning (15-16) and clinching their ticket to the final against New Zealand.
“I must say, independently and not by wanting to play the sore loser, that it is a questionable penalty which wins the match,” contested the former English third row Lawrence Dallaglio, 2003 world champion and consultant on the English channel ITV. Ellis Genge takes a knee, but Ben O’Keeffe is going to be a talking point here, because he won the game for South Africa. »
Koch pushes across, but after Genge’s knee to the ground
Why would this decision be questionable? As Dallaglio says, O’Keeffe believes England left prop Ellis Genge took one knee, unbalancing the scrum. By reviewing the images (capture below), we can actually see that the English player touches the ground with his knee briefly, just after the commitment and just before the introduction of the ball by Springbok scrum-half Faf de Klerk , probably under the weight of the South African scrum.
In the scrum, English prop Ellis Genge touches the ground with his knee just before the ball is introduced, which is prohibited and punished with a penalty.
However, on social networks in particular, many English supporters have noted, with supporting images, that the South African right pillar Vincent Koch was not pushing straight. The slow motion in question does indeed show Koch sideways in the melee, but it only shows the action after Genge’s knee hits the ground. Ben O’Keeffe therefore estimated that the first will have been pushed into error by the second, who destabilized the melee by kneeling on the ground.
Frontline players must not contort, flex their body or perform any action likely to cause the collapse of the scrum, whether before or after the introduction of the ball, the rules specify, penalizing this infraction with a penalty kick.
As for the England team, we preferred not to dwell on this fact of the game when the final whistle blew. “Now is not the time to dissect the match. They found a way to gain the upper hand in the scrum and thanks to that, they occupied the field and scored points,” England coach Steve Borthwick simply responded in a post-match press conference.
English legend Jonny Wilkinson, for his part, sent a barely spicy message to the South Africans, especially congratulating the English for their performance: “A huge performance from England, who have come so far in so few weeks and who comes out with his head held high. Well done to the Springboks for finding a way to win, and hats off to Handré Pollard for the penalty. »
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