Appointment of South African TMO sparks fury in Lions camp

World Rugby on Wednesday withdrew New Zealand’s Brendon Pickerill as the TMO for Saturday’s first Test between the Springboks and the Lions at Cape Town Stadium citing travel difficulties

British & Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

Lions head coach Warren Gatland is understood to be furious at the late replacement of Saturday’s neutral television match official with a South African whose decision-making has already mystified the New Zealander on this tour.

Last Wednesday, World Rugby withdrew New Zealand’s Brendon Pickerill as the TMO for Saturday’s first Test between the Springboks and the Lions at Cape Town Stadium, citing travel difficulties in the ongoing pandemic.

Their choice of replacement is South African Marius Jonker, a decision the Lions were informed about at the same time as the change was announced. Australia’s Nic Berry remains the match referee, with fellow series officials Ben O’Keeffe of New Zealand and Mathieu Reynal of France his assistants on Saturday.

The Lions are understood to be at a loss as to why there was no contingency in place for an alternative TMO from a neutral country for what is potentially the biggest game of rugby this year, with Gatland believed to be furious of the decision to appoint Jonker.

It was the same TMO who was in place for last week’s tour game when the tourists were beaten by South Africa A in Cape Town and played a part in deciding Faf de Klerk’s high hit on Lions prop Wyn Jones late in the second half was a yellow-card offence as the scrum-half’s 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 last Thursday. “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. What we want is clarity so that we get complete consistency.”

Gatland’s words last week sparked a riposte from South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus who responded to the Irish Examiner’s story citing the Lions’ boss’s complaints on the newspaper’s Twitter account by replying with video clips from the same game highlighting a series of alleged misdemeanours against his A side’s players.

Using his personal Twitter account, Erasmus replied to the Irish Examiner Sport tweet by posting a clip of Owen Farrell appearing to make shoulder-to-head contact on Jasper Wiese and wrote: “While you at it please get clarity on this also!! Red, yellow, penalty or play on? We have to 100% sure and aligned! Can’t agree more.” Gatland, who, on Wednesday, praised Saturday’s referee Berry, was due to meet the Test series referees on Thursday and he explained if there were any specifics he would be seeking clarification on from them ahead of the first Test.

“No, just making sure that the messages being delivered to us in the warm-up games are exactly the same and that the referees we’ve looked at, Nic Berry, Ben O’Keeffe, and Mathieu Raynal, in terms of the way they referee the game,” said Gatland.

“And with Nic being an ex-scrum-half, making sure that we don’t commit ourselves in terms of disrupting the nine too much, because he wants the ball to get away from the breakdown and he’s pretty hot on offsides as well. He’s been averaging about seven offsides a match in terms of penalties, so we’ve got to make sure we don’t overstep the mark and give away any soft penalties.

“I really like him as a referee. He’s an excellent referee, one of the best, and still a young referee as well. Having played at the highest level, the top level, himself in terms of top rugby, I think he’s got a really good understanding of the game.”