‘What we want is clarity so we get complete consistency’: Warren Gatland to meet with refs ahead of first Test

South Africa A's Faf de Klerk receives a yellow card from Referee Jaco Peyper. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

Lions head coach Warren Gatland will meet with tour referees today seeking clarity and consistency over high tackles after concerns were raised by a yellow card for Faf de Klerk in South Africa A’s 17-13 win over the tourists on Wednesday.

The World Cup-winning scrum-half was sent to the sin bin by South African Test referee Jaco Peyper in Cape Town after a high hit on Lions prop Wyn Jones late in the second half after officials deemed his shoulder had not made contact with the Welshman’s head.

“I can’t understand where the comments were that there was no contact to the head,” Gatland said of the incident. “Someone was watching a different picture to me. I thought it looked reckless to me.

“No arms and he’s hit the arm first and then the shoulder, but there’s definitely head-on-head contact. We’ve got a meeting with the referees tomorrow just to get a bit of clarity on that. What we want is clarity so we get complete consistency.

“The citing commissioner looks at those things. It’ll be interesting to see what the referees come back with and what other people who have looked at come back with in terms of what the recommendations were for that incident.”

Gatland’s comments came shortly after he insisted it was not his job to prepare the Springboks for their Test series with Lions, which begins on July 24, as he once again rebuffed Rassie Erasmus’s call for his squad to play South Africa A for a second time this weekend.

Asked on Thursday afternoon why Erasmus was still talking about another A game, Gatland said: “I have no idea. I haven’t heard that. As far as we’re concerned we’re here out for the Stormers.

“It’s a great opportunity for those Stormers players to have a chance to play against the Lions, they get that one-in-a-lifetime chance and I’d hate to see that taken away from them.

“He put out pretty much his top side against us last night, which is good because we had a good look at them.

“And I don’t see it as our role to prepare them for the Test series.”