Andy Farrell refuses to blame TMO decisions while Erasmus praises Ireland’s fighting spirit

The Boks ended a seven-year losing streak with the hard-fought win on Saturday. 

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell before the first test between South Africa and Ireland at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria

Ireland refused to blame some controversial television match official (TMO) calls for their 27-20 loss against the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Boks ended a seven-year losing streak with the victory, as well as a three-Test losing sequence in that time, but it wasn’t without some good fortune.

Ireland had one try chalked off after wing James Lowe had raced 60 metres to dot down. Television Match Official (TMO) Ben Whitehouse ruled that an Ireland player had used his hands in the ruck to win the ball back, which led to Lowe’s score. Let’s just say it was marginal.

Even more marginal was the TMO’s view that Lowe’s foot was still in the air when flipping the ball in-field. Bok wing Cheslin Kolbe swooped onto the ball, hacked ahead and scored.

That made the score 20-8 to the home side with 14 minutes to play. It was a margin Ireland could not close despite a never-say-die approach.

Asked if he was aggrieved by the TMO calls, coach Andy Farrell was diplomatic.

“Well, it’s not for me to say, is it? I saw quite a few of them live and I had a dubious thought about it, but that’s life, isn’t it?” Farrell said.

We’ll go through the right channels and make sure we do things properly. You’ll make of it what you want. We have to go through the right channels. Lucky, unlucky? That’s the game.” Those two incidents made it a 14 point swing within minutes, In tight contests, as battles between the Boks and Ireland have become, it was crucial.

Although you could argue that Lowe’s attempt to keep the Handre Pollard penalty touch finder in play, and then flipping the ball back in Kolbe’s path, was as much to blame as the debatable TMO call.

Farrell though, took a different view.

“It was a special play by Kolbe, to chase that ball. It’s one of the reasons they won the World Cup, with him chasing down the kicker in France, but we were slack in not backing James up,” Farrell said.

“You’ll make your own decision on whether he still had the ball in his right hand or whether the ball hit him as he threw the ball back into the field and his foot was in touch. That’s for us all to debate.” Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus shrugged at the mention of the two TMO incidents and whether Ireland had cause to complain.

“It wouldn’t help would it,” the Bok coach said. “I certainly have learned from the past to let it be. That’s the protocol and that’s how it works, so they should accept it and move on.” Although Ireland have some legitimate questions to ask around the incidents they were also second best in the first half when the Boks unveiled more of their new attacking game.

They moved the ball wide quickly and early, using width more than before. It might not have surprised Ireland completely because they had an idea what to expect with Tony Brown coaching the Boks’ attack, but dealing with it is not as straightforward.

That’s because the Boks haven’t abandoned their direct confrontational style either. It stretched Ireland at times.

“In the first half, I thought we was off,” Farrell said. “I thought we gave away access for them to be able to play their game. Defensively, we was a bit passive, certainly for the first try.

“But then the story of the game for me, after some words at halftime, I thought it was courageous the way we defended and got ourselves back into the game.

“In fact, it’s the make-up of this team and history would say it, that even with the type of performance in the first half, we hung in there, we don’t go away.

“You know, there are plenty of teams that would have been under the pump in the first half like that and then seen the game run away from them in the second half. We didn’t. We stayed in the fight and could’ve, would’ve, should’ve with some decisions that rightly or wrongly, didn’t go our way.” Injuries to hooker Dan Sheehan, scrumhalf Craig Casey, who was concussed and debutant fullback Jamie Osborne, who had a groin strain, and didn’t finish the game.

Erasmus certainly acknowledged Ireland’s fight and tenacity and admitted that it was a game of the finest margins.

“There were instances where they came back so strongly and if they didn’t have one or two big injuries the game would have been much tighter,” Erasmus said.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a monkey off our back (to end the losing streak) but it’s a really good competitive opponent, who are number two in the world, and any day they can step up and beat you and be number one.

“Next week I’ll expect the same from them – they’ll never give up and they’ll try to be more dominant. They’ll be more settled in the second Test – they were disrupted with injuries – but even when Cheslin scored his try to put us in a strong position, they didn’t give up and even to the last second we were nervy about the game.”