South Africa coach ignores 'head clash' vs Scotland and delivers own verdict

12 September 2023 , 12:00

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Rassie Erasmus saw little wrong with a controversial tackle in his team's opening win

South Africa's Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus insists he is "comfortable" with Jesse Kriel not getting cited for his controversial tackle despite damning footage of the incident.

The defending champions began their World Cup defence with an 18-3 win over Scotland, but it was tackle in the opening minutes that has grabbed the headlines. World Rugby has attempted to crackdown on head-on-head collisions in an attempt to make the game safer, with England's Tom Curry getting red carded against Argentina on Saturday.

Many were therefore stunned when Kriel's tackle on No 8 Jack Dempsey didn't even get reviewed by the TMO. Images clearly show the two players clashing heads but Erasmus claimed that his player tackled the ball and was defiant on the lack of head contact.

He said: “We are comfortable that they haven’t cited him and we are very sure that there won’t be a citing. There definitely wasn’t head-on-head contact, it was a tackle on the ball. He moved up after making the tackle on the ball. I’ve seen a few stills that were taken just after Jesse made direct contact on the ball.

"You can make any tackle like that look really bad. If you look a millisecond or a second or two back, you will see that he clearly tackled on the ball. So, yeah, we are very happy with how it was refereed. We are happy with the decision that was made. I will be very surprised that, with first contact on the ball, there will be anything from that.”

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Scotland were understandably frustrated, particularly as a no arms tackle by Finn Russell, which was far less dangerous, was quickly reviewed by the TMO and resulted in their playmaker being sent to the sin bin.

Jesse Kriel escaped punishment for a high tackle on Jack Dempsey (ITV)

Gregor Townsend, leading the Scots at his second World Cup, admitted he was waiting for the TMO to come in and raise the tackle with the referee. He believes the failure to do so undermines the message the game's authorities are trying to send.

"I saw it on the television from two screens away and it did look like it was a head-on-head collision and I was expecting the TMO to come in to make the referee aware of that.

"Who knows if it had been a red card? We had a red card on Saturday and it didn’t help or change the game in terms of Argentina’s favour against England, so who knows? But it is inconsistency over what is a red card, a yellow card or a penalty that I am frustrated by."

Samuel Meade