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Cape Town - Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett says fans shouldn't complain about the performance of French referee Romain Poite during the Boks' 29-15 loss to Ireland in Dublin at the weekend.
As it happened: Ireland v Springboks
Poite had fans fuming with his officiating during the Test at Aviva Stadium, with many voicing their concerns on social networking site Twitter.
The referee was also criticised for sending reserve hooker Adriaan Strauss to the sin-bin for taking Ireland fullback Rob Kearney out in the air.
Former Bok captain Bob Skinstad, who was commentating on the game, felt the decision was harsh and criticised the referee for giving Strauss a yellow card.
However, Mallett disagreed with Skinstad and lauded the performance of Poite in the SuperSport studio after the game.
"I've got no complaints about the ref. Lots of people were saying that the ref was hopeless," said Mallett. "I disagree. I thought he refereed the game perfectly well and I think that our discipline let us down badly.
As it happened: Ireland v Springboks
Poite had fans fuming with his officiating during the Test at Aviva Stadium, with many voicing their concerns on social networking site Twitter.
The referee was also criticised for sending reserve hooker Adriaan Strauss to the sin-bin for taking Ireland fullback Rob Kearney out in the air.
Former Bok captain Bob Skinstad, who was commentating on the game, felt the decision was harsh and criticised the referee for giving Strauss a yellow card.
However, Mallett disagreed with Skinstad and lauded the performance of Poite in the SuperSport studio after the game.
"I've got no complaints about the ref. Lots of people were saying that the ref was hopeless," said Mallett. "I disagree. I thought he refereed the game perfectly well and I think that our discipline let us down badly.
"People will complain about Adriaan Strauss getting sent off, but you know that you cannot take a guy in the air. He got the yellow card he deserved."
Mallett said the Boks simply did not take their chances on the day.
"We lost the game because we didn't take our points when we should've. It's the northern hemisphere - we knock over our points and it might've been 9-6 at half-time. There were two knock-ons in vital positions, one from a driving maul and one at the base of a scrum 5m out.
"The fact that we went for driving mauls in the first 20 minutes of a Test match when we've got kickable penalties shows me that we were overconfident. That we can just get our driving maul going and score tries. It doesn't work that way."
