A New Zealand politician has reacted angrily after the Springboks created history on Saturday by beating the All Blacks to win a fourth Rugby World Cup title.
New Zealand cabinet minister Willie Jackson took to his official page on Facebook to let his feelings known after the All Blacks “were robbed” by the referee.
Handre Pollard kicked all 12 points as Siya Kolisi’s men held on to seal a famous 12-11 win at the Stade de France in Paris.
The win meant the Springboks joined the All Blacks as the only teams to win back-to-back titles, and they also became the first team to win the tournament four times.
Read Willie Jackson’s full Twitter statement below:
Im getting tired of hearing how the best team won the Rugby World cup, what a load of bloody nonsense.
The best team clearly lost todays game, and the All Blacks were the better side, but we were robbed by a referee who apparently is the Number one ref in the world but clearly is a bogey referee for us and I am not talking about his decision to red card Sam Cane. No, I am talking about him giving South Africa 3 points that he admitted was a mistake. When Wayne Barnes said to Ardie Savea sorry mate I made a mistake , he should have then stopped the penalty but he didn’t. It’s crazy how referees can pull back tries when they make mistakes but here we had one who knew he made a mistake awarded a penalty, apologised then proceeded with the mistake!
Yes, we had our opportunities and still should have won with 14 men but the Barnes mistake totally taints the Springbok win, they got a win that they did not deserve. Not that the Boks didn’t play to their strengths they did , but to win a game on a penalty that the ref says was not a penalty is a disgrace.
Also a disgrace was the TMO involvement whose intervention in the game ensured an All Black loss, TMO was also wrong to rule out the All Blacks first try and wrong to not red card the Springbok captain. However, I think the penalty decision was the worst decision of the match.
In my over 50 years of watching Test rugby I have never seen a worse decision, to watch and hear the referee openly admit he had got it wrong and then proceed just made me sick. So, well done to our team it was the biggest rip off in Rugby World Cup history. The All Blacks, like our 95 team, were beaten by a Bok unit who were not better than us, but that’s rugby why we love this game, and why we keep watching.
Although I must confess after that result I wont be watching again for some time!
IOL Sport