Kaplan: Poite made poor calls

Cape Town - Retired South African referee Jonathan Kaplan says French referee made some poor decision during the Springboks' 29-15 loss to Ireland in Dublin at the weekend.

READ:Boks can't blame ref - Mallett

Kaplan commented on the game via his website, www.ratetheref.co.za.

He admitted the Boks were the architects of their own downfall by lacking their normal physical edge, but said Poite made some glaring errors.

Kaplan wrote: "They (the Boks) got out-passioned and out-thought by a very tough competent Irish outfit. We were off our game. And even though referee Poite didn’t have the best afternoon out there, I think it is wise to first look at our own performance before we start looking for excuses.

"Having said that. There were some very poor decisions on the day, some iffy ones and some that merit discussion at the very least. Clearly I can’t go into every decision on this platform, but an in depth visual review would be very helpful for our deserving public who quite correctly would like answers…

"Ireland's best tactic of the day was to double staple over the ball on defence thereby confusing the clean and winning turnover or penalty. This is illegal. Referees in general are poor at identifying this. They did it very well all afternoon. It does lend itself towards poor attack as the team in possession feel threatened with the ball.

"Poite penalised (Bismarck) du Plessis early in the game at scrum when his opponent had clearly hinged on the set. A poor call. Made even worse by the fact that the Irish scrum got butchered the whole game and it was clearly a tactic to negate a strength.

"Ireland also used a lineout tactic where they would back off once the ball was collected and then come in round the side… appallingly poor refereeing understanding of what is happening. Either penalise Ireland for leaving the lineout or penalise SA for early transfer of the ball before contact is made, the other option is not good for the game."

Kaplan also criticised Poite's decision to send reserve hooker Adriaan Strauss to the sin-bin for tackling Ireland fullback Rob Kearney in the air.

"The yellow card for Strauss was equally poor. The fact that he made contact with the player in the air was no different from Kearney on (Willie) le Roux in the first two minutes of the game. The inconsistency of sanction had local supporters up in arms. I personally feel that over-sanitising this aspect is a knee jerk reaction to the injuries which may take place and the referee needs to be able to use common sense. A penalty it may have been, but never a yellow card."