The Springbok Sevens were on the wrong side of some referee calls in their first clash at the Paris Olympics yesterday, losing 10-5 to Ireland in a tight contest at the Stade de France.
Shortly after the start of the game, one could sense that South Africa were going to be at the receiving end of some strange calls from the match official, Italian Gianluca Gnecchi, when he penalised Christie Grobbelaar for not releasing the tackled player after stealing a ball.
Grobbelaar, though, clearly demonstrated the daylight rule after the tackle, and was pretty baffled by the call against him.
Then, when Irish flyer Terry Kennedy almost scored after a neat little kick behind the Blitzboks’ defence, Gnecchi indicated a 22m drop-out which would’ve given Ireland the possession back.
Luckily the Television Match Official (TMO) stepped in and overturned the decision to a scrum from where the ball was kicked.
To make matters worse, a yellow card in the second half to forward Ryan Oosthuizen for head contact in a tackle, was the decisive nail in the South Africans’ coffin. It opened the space for Ireland to score their second try.
But the replay showed the Irish ball-carrier leading with a shoulder into the head of Oosthuizen during the attempted tackle, with no head-on-head contact.
The TMO looked at the incident again and decided it warranted a yellow for Oosthuizen, even though the replay showed clearly there was no head contact with the ball-carrier.
Those were all tough calls that turned the tide against the South Africans and they never got into the game, especially on the attack in the first half.
The Blitzboks had to defend for most of the first seven minutes, and the few times they had possession, knock-ons turned the ball over.
Captain Selvyn Davids just looked up during a scrum to knock the ball on, and the South Africans defended deep in their 22m area to force a knock-on from Ireland wing Jordan Conroy.
Davids then had to kick the ball long for some relief, and it gave their opponents possession to attack again in the dying moments of the half, with Conroy eventually going over after some massive defence.
“We basically had five percent of the possession in the first half, and in this game, when you don’t have ball in hand, you can’t score tries,” veteran Impi Visser said after the match.
“It was a massive defensive effort, but we need the ball in hand to put points on the board. That was a bit frustrating. And once we had the ball, we gave it back immediately.
“Credit to Ireland for holding on to the ball. Every game now is a knockout game for us.”
South Africa finally stretched their legs first up in the second half when flyer Quewin Nortjé was sent down the right-hand touch before being hauled in.
In another attack, a neat grubber kick-through almost brought the Blitzboks’ first score when Nortjé just missed collecting the ball, and in the process knocked the ball for a scrum.
Davids and veteran Rosko Specman combined well in the late stages for the captain to go over to close the gap on the scoreboard, but it was a little too late for a comeback.
An error from the kickoff gave Ireland a free-kick to tap the ball and boot it out for the victory.
The Blitzboks will next face New Zealand (9.30pm kickoff) in the second pool match in Paris on Wednesday night.
They face Japan (4pm start) on Thursday in the final Pool A match before the knockouts begin on Thursday evening.