It has been interesting to watch Saru's battle with the IRB — over the Springboks' protest over Bakkies Botha's suspension — play out this week, particularly when you consider that absolutely nothing happened to Wallaby flyhalf Matt Giteau for his cheap shot on Fourie du Preez.
Matt Giteau is free to score more tries...
I initially thought the 'Justice-4-All' protest was a bit melodramatic, and sent a rather poor message to the rugby-watching public at large, but now I am not so sure. It is hard not to believe that there is some sort of agenda against South African rugby when these sorts of inconsistencies happen.
The fact that Giteau didn't even get cited is quite bizarre, but hardly a shock. The only thing consistent about IRB disciplinary procedures is how inconsistent they are… But it is fitting that the latest debacle occurred the weekend before Saru had to answer to an IRB tribunal over their team's protest action.
Giteau's flying elbow, meanwhile, was quite ridiculous. What he did was obviously borne out of frustration, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. For years, the Australian media has been at pains to highlight the 'thuggish' play of the Springboks, (and often you could not argue with them), but on Saturday, Giteau took the prize for the biggest yobbo on the park.
The Wallaby playmaker picked up a yellow card for his transgression, but really it should have been a red, because he was never going for the ball. It was deliberate and, in my mind, that means he intended to do harm. You can imagine the ruckus the Australians would kick up if the shoe were on the other foot.
Personally, I have never seen such a negative performance from an Australian team. Sure, they generally play games at scrum-time, and are a touch cynical too, but on Saturday they played like a team that knew they could not go toe-to-toe with the opposition, so instead opted to kill the game as a fair contest.
At times I was convinced we were playing Italy, Japan or Georgia, so intent were the Australians in killing the ball at the breakdown. Their ball-carriers held on in the tackle, their tacklers just held on and at times they seemed to be entering from everywhere but 'the gate'.
Some scribes in Oz are claiming that the Boks have benefitted from northern hemisphere refs in this year's Tri-Nations, and that we won because of numerical advantages. What a load of rubbish! The Wallabies are lucky they only got the three yellows on Saturday because it could have been a lot worse for them.
It is also worth remembering that the reason the Australians were constantly being penalised was because they were guilty of infringing — something even the players and coach can admit to. Why were they infringing? They were forced into it by a ruthless Springbok pack.
The Boks have reached the half-way point in this year's campaign, and while nothing is won yet, with the overseas leg still to come, they are well on their way to claiming a third title.
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