Stick Adamant Springboks Not Treated Fairly

Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick has hinted that both Franco Mostert and Lood de Jager will be available to face Ireland on Saturday, revealing that Mostert will face a disciplinary hearing. At the same time, de Jager will also appeal his suspension.

Mostert, who received a red card from referee James Doleman in the 12th minute of the Boks clash with Italy on Saturday, for a tackle on Italy’s Paolo Garbisi, faces his judicial process in the coming days.

De Jager has already been slapped with a four-match suspension for a tackle on France’s Thomas Ramos, and on both occasions, the locks were adjudged to have committed acts deemed worthy of a permanent red card, where the bunker review was not used at all.

Speaking with a sense of disappointment, Stick said, “I think ‘Sous’ will be having his hearing Tuesday or Wednesday, and Lood de Jager is going through another appeal. As a team, we are just disappointed with how things are flowing at the moment.” 

Maintaining the same tone, Stick added, “Week by week, we’re losing players, and it’s sad. The build-up to the Italy game and the spirit in Turin were good. Everyone was looking forward to the game, and for the game to turn out the way it did is just disappointing.” 

“If you are saying that Franco Mostert is a red card over the weekend – if you saw the incidents, surely there were supposed to be more than five red cards,” he said.

Referring to other similar incidents in the game, the 41-year-old said, “All of a sudden, other situations become a yellow card and we are just disappointed with the way things are being handled at the moment.”

Explaining the incidents, the Springbok assistant coach said, “If you look at the actions of Franco Mostert and Lood de Jager the previous week, they have done everything by the book. The only mistake is that maybe the contact was here (chest), but it ended up near the head. I don’t understand how that becomes a permanent red card.” 

“From our side as coaches, we still need to work hard. We can see that they’re nice and tall. They try to do everything by the book, but because rugby is a physical game, we don’t always get it perfect. For them to say the tackle was never legal is disappointing.” 

Stick pulled no punches when he felt most of the decisions went against the four-time World Champions and alluded to the Springboks being treated harsher in comparison to similar incidents elsewhere. 

“About twenty-one decisions that were supposed to be made in the first half, twenty of them went against us.” 

Asked if he felt his team was being treated unfairly, the assistant coach made reference to other players who were banned before the tour had even started, but was still careful not to say too much. 

“I don’t want to say things and then end up also being banned like Rassie (Erasmus) in the past,” he said.

“We had players like Makazole Mapimpi suspended and not on the tour at the moment. He has 47 Test matches, and it would have been an opportunity for him to get to 50. Jan-Hendrik Wessels, a youngster, misses out – suspended.”

“Even the Fiji and France game with the cleanouts that were there, the Ireland and Australia game, situations that were even worse than what those guys have been suspended for. Surely somewhere, somehow, this is not fair.”

Stick’s final words were profound, stating candidly the growing sense of injustice towards the World Champions. 

“I don’t think we deserve this as a team. Are we treated fairly? I don’t think so.”