Former Test referee Jonathan Kaplan says Richie McCaw's match-winning try against the Springboks at Ellis Park should not have been awarded.
The All Blacks were trailing 20-17 with six minutes remaining when they scored a try from a lineout move. No 8 Kieran Read went up to take the ball at the back, hooker Dane Coles made as if to take it at the front, with McCaw moving into the gap to claim possession and dive over the line.
However, Kaplan says the All Blacks should have been penalised.
'As a receiver, McCaw has to stand 2m away from the lineout,' he wrote on ratetheref.co.za. 'It is questionable whether he was. Moreover, he cannot move into the lineout to receive the ball until the ball has left the hands of the thrower. It is clear he does start moving before the ball has left the hands of the hooker.
'The referee [Jérôme Garcès] never had a clue what was going on. One can see with his body language, that he was quite happy to award the try. Not even a referral! No TMO intervention either. And crucially, where was our leadership to insist that this important and defining score be verified?'
Kapan added that the Boks should have told the referee that loosehead prop Trevor Nyakane could also play tighthead, to avoid having uncontested scrums in the second half after both specialist tightheads, Jannie du Plessis and Vincent Koch, had left the field.
'The referee would never have said, sorry Boks, an international tighthead can’t play tighthead.'
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Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
