Dirty incidents were blown out of proportion - Krige

Springbok skipper Corne Krige believes the criticism directed at South Africa following their brutal display against England at Twickenham last November was “blown out of all proportion”.

After the game Sky Sports complied video footage which highlighted numerous instances of foul play during a savage performance which earned the Springboks widespread condemnation.

Krige appeared to be the worse culprit as South Africa collapsed to a 50-point record drubbing, with Martin Johnson, Phil Vickery and Jason Robinson all on the receiving end of some vicious treatment.

Even South Africa fly-half Andre Pretorius took a blow from his captain, caught by a swinging arm which just missed England scrum-half Matt Dawson.

Krige has since issued an apology to the South African Rugby Union for his side’s display that day – he has also been fined and warned over his discipline - but still feels the incidents did not justify the subsequent furore.

“I didn’t see the video, I’ve just see the photos that have been published in newspapers,” said the back row flanker, who skippered Super 12 side the Western Stormers to a 15-7 victory over Sale at Heywood Road tonight.

“If you have 21 cameras around the stadium – like Sky Sports do – then you’ll pick up far more incidents than you would with just three or four. That made the game look even worse than it was.

“It was selective editing. If you’ve got 21 angles then you can make it look really bad, and if you slow it down 100 times it does look worse.

“Some of the dirty aspects were blown out of all proportion by the press in England. A lot of England players came up to me afterwards and said it wasn’t that bad.”

Krige is determined to put the England match behind him and focus on the next encounter between the two sides – in Perth in October when they meet in a crucial World Cup group clash.

“It’s been tough for me – I took a lot of criticism after we got back from the tour to Europe,” said Krige, who guided the Boks to a clean sweep of defeats in the Autumn internationals.

“Some of it was justified – I did need to take some criticism. The criticism for the way we lost was justified – it was just the dirty incidents which were blown out of all proportion.

“But all that is in the past and now I want to prove that I’m still good enough for the Springboks. We meet England again in October and there’s plenty of time between now and then.”