'Factually: off his feet, turnover made. So try can't be scored' - Peyper

Murray Kinsella Reports from uMhlanga

THE SPRINGBOKS’ DESIRE to get better has extended to bringing a top-level referee into their coaching staff full-time, with Jaco Peyper now installed as a cog in Rassie Erasmus’ machine.

The recently retired South African referee moved into his new role as the ‘national laws advisor’ for the Springboks earlier this year.

And it was timely that Peyper was presented for media duty today at the Springboks’ team hotel in uMhlanga, a resort town just north of Durban where the second Test against Ireland takes place this weekend.

There were a few big moments involving television match official [TMO] Ben Whitehouse in the Boks’ 27-20 win over Ireland in the first Test in Pretoria on Saturday, most notably when a James Lowe try was chalked off on TMO review.

Whitehouse and referee Luke Pearce concluded that Ireland hooker Rónan Kelleher had illegally hooked the ball backwards for an Irish turnover at the ruck just before Lowe streaked away to score. They did not discuss a neck roll on Kelleher by Springboks fullback Willie Le Roux that happened at the same time as Kelleher hooked the ball.

“It’s got to be factual based,” was Peyper’s assessment today. “The TMO has the same ability as the coaches, he’s got eight angles at the same time and would have seen a few of those types of actions in the lead-up in different rucks.

“So if you get points scored from that, they’re going to have to look at that turnover. Factually, the player is off his feet and he turns over possession.

“Sometimes you don’t want to step in touch but you’re in touch. Sometimes you don’t want to make that turnover when you’re off your feet but you still do it, even though you don’t mean it. Factually: off his feet, turnover made. So try can’t be scored.

“Then it becomes a debate whether it should be a penalty to Ireland because he was touched to the neck. That is debatable. Maybe the officials are trying to stay consistent because a few minutes earlier, there was exactly the same scenario on Kwagga Smith which was played through, so maybe that’s even-handed.

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“That’s all in the game of rugby, you can’t referee everything but you can’t leave stuff that’s high impact.”

The incident was unusual because the TMO is generally not involved in decision-making around the ruck.

Referee Luke Pearce was in an excellent position to assess the ruck as it happened live and decided there was nothing worth penalising until TMO Whitehouse flagged the possible infringement.

Asked whether this is a slippery slope for rugby to go down given that there are so many potential infringements that occur at so many rucks, Peyper reiterated his belief that the decision had been justified and claimed that Ireland had knocked the ball on just before anyway.

“I think if it’s a technical infringement… but if it’s a player making a decision to go off his feet, I think that’s under a cynical infringement rather than a technical infringement,” said Peyper.

“A player going off his feet, that would be my understanding of it. But if you look at that, I think 10 seconds earlier there was a clear knock-on by [Craig] Casey behind the ruck, so I think we shouldn’t have got there.”

Ireland also conceded a try to Cheslin Kolbe that involved a TMO review to assess whether Lowe had put his foot down in touch before releasing the ball back infield just before Kolbe kicked it ahead to score.

The decision to award the try stood.

“It’s fine margins, so they have to be very clear,” said Peyper. “It’s a big Test match so you’d rather have one replay too many than two too little. If the onfield decision is a try, that means it stands until there’s evidence that proves otherwise.

“If it’s suspicious or maybe, play through and the try stands. If they couldn’t prove with facts that he touched the ground, you have to stay with the onfield decision. If we were on the other side, we would have felt aggrieved but if there’s a clear process it would have been followed.”

Peyper rejected the suggestion from a South African journalist that the calls in the first Test had favoured South Africa.

“It’s factually-based,” he said. “If you look at that [Lowe dissllowed] try, two years ago in the Aviva, Ireland scored a try where the exact same action where the hooker kicked the ball out of the breakdown and Ireland got the benefit of the doubt that day. This time, it went the other way. It’s fact-proven and follow the process.”

Peyper was also asked whether the 6/2 bench split that the Springboks used again in the first Test was dangerous, given how it allows the South Africans to have so many fresh forwards on the pitch.

The former Test referee laughed before answering.

“I think the law is pretty clear you can do it,” said Peyper. “I don’t think that makes it dangerous. It makes it dangerous when players don’t level-change, drop their height into contact.

“It makes it dangerous when players take a risk in the air and don’t respect the other player in the air. I don’t think the Bomb Squad or a 6/2 split makes it dangerous. Ireland played with a 6/2 split three times in the Six Nations, nobody talked about them.

“I think it’s because it was effective. Safety of the game is determined by the shape of the game. Laws are made to protect players. A fresh pair of legs doesn’t make the game dangerous. I’ve actually seen a paper written by Dr Ross Tucker that says the risk of injury goes down when fresher players enter the pitch.”