A second of footage nobody can stop watching
Man of the match. And yet here we are.
Cheslin Kolbe spent Sunday defending something that lasted barely a second. He had already been taken off in Cape Town on Saturday when he ended up on the deck. Leroy Carter, his New Zealand opposite number, took a fistful of shirt and dragged him along the ground.
Kolbe got up swinging. What went into Carter’s jaw looked an awful lot like a left hook. Then a shove, then team-mates piling in, then the South African walking off visibly rattled.
Officials stood metres away. Nothing given. No charge has been brought against the 32-year-old since.
Try it for $0.99.
Thirty kilos, or no excuse at all
The internet picked its sides overnight. One camp wants a two-match ban and will not be talked out of it: a closed fist on a rugby pitch is a closed fist, contact light or otherwise, provocation or not.
The other camp points at the shirt-pull. Kolbe was being hauled about while grounded, and he concedes something close to 30 kilos to most men on that field. A third group has stopped arguing about Kolbe entirely and turned on the officiating, because the replay showed what the whistle did not.
Which is really the row underneath the row. How much does rugby still wave through when nobody blows?
Two Tests to go, and a panel saying nothing
South Africa beat the All Blacks 33-26 in Cape Town on Saturday. The series is level at 1-1 with two Tests left, which is not a backdrop that cools anybody down.
Kolbe, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Eben Etzebeth drove that win. A response was expected after the hammering in the opener. It came.
Whether the disciplinary panel acts before the next Test is anyone’s guess. It has not said a word.
Discover the rest of the RUGBY news on our mathodds site and app!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply