The tackle that ended Dan Carter’s game and saw Bismarck du Plessis pick up a yellow card. Photo: Getty Images
Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer refrained from criticising referee Romain Poite after their controversial 29-15 loss to the All Blacks today.
Poite sin-binned Bismarck du Plessis after his 15th minute tackle on Dan Carter, a hit which has seen the fly-half ruled out for four to six weeks, but there seemed to be little wrong with the hooker’s technique.
He was then rightly shown a second yellow in the second-half and was also handed his marching orders.
Despite playing 38 minutes of the match with 14 men, Meyer held back from criticising Poite. Meyer said: “We don’t have any excuses, we wanted it to be a spectacle.
“I don’t think we played that well, but I always thought we had a chance after halftime. They outplayed us for the first 30 minutes, but I really felt there was a momentum shift after that driving maul.”
Springboks captain Jean de Villiers followed Meyer’s lead but admitted Du Plessis was disappointed with being sent from the field in the first-half. De Villiers said: “He is a very good tackler and I think he executes his tackles very well.
“It is what it is and we have to move on and learn from this because at the end of the day, whatever decisions were made we didn’t play well tonight. – ESPN
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