Nigel Owens weighs in on Springboks tactical controversies as ex-Test ref reveals the ‘problem’ with Rassie Erasmus’ innovations

Former Test referee Nigel Owens has suggested that both of the Springboks’ innovations could have been penalised in their victory over Italy.

South Africa hammered Italy in Gqeberha on Saturday to complete a 2-0 series win, but much of the talk afterwards centred on the hosts’ decision to bring in some tactical tweaks.

That included purposefully infringing from the kick-off in order to have a scrum and an open field ‘lineout’, which entailed lifting a player in the air and setting up a maul during phase play.

Nigel Owens’ view

It has stirred much debate and well respected ex-referee Owens had his say on the matter.

The Welshman felt that there was a “problem” with the latter, although he did not state whether it infringed any specific law.

“The problem with that play is that you are unable to tackle the player in the air or his support jumpers so you can not defend it or compete,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Owens was far more certain on the kick-off routine which saw Springboks centre Andre Esterhuizen catch the ball in an offside position following Manie Libbok’s chip ahead.

“PK for sure”, he wrote, pointing to the fact that it was a deliberate offence.

Although a scrum will be awarded if the ball fails to go 10 metres from the kick-off or a player is unintentionally offside, the former official states that a penalty can be awarded if it is done on purpose.

That may therefore be clarified by World Rugby over the coming weeks with Rassie Erasmus once again pushing the boundaries.

Incredible Rassie Erasmus knowledge

The Boks boss has an excellent understanding of the lawbook and is always looking at ways of finding loopholes in order to gain an advantage for his side.

“We wanted to get the scrum badly to get into the game early on. We felt last week that Italy got a lot of channel one balls at scrum time,” Erasmus revealed post-match.

However, it did not go to plan with referee Andrew Brace awarding a free-kick to the visitors after the South Africa front-row infringed at the scrum.

We make a lot of little plans that sometimes don’t pay off, that people don’t know of. Sometimes people just see the things that do work, and this time it backfired against us,” South Africa’s head coach added.

“We had a plan, but then we had the free-kick against us. It was a good plan in theory, but a bad plan from a practical point of view.”