Matt Williams has slammed the Boks’ exploitation of the laws governing the makeup of the bench, saying their 7-1 split is a safety issue and “against the spirit of the game”.
The world champions made a late change to their lineup that faced the All Blacks in a World Cup warm-up on Friday, after utility back Willie le Roux was forced to withdraw due to injury, and the Springbok coaches included loose forward Kwagga Smith among the substitutes.
Veteran scrumhalf Cobus Reinach was the only backline replacement for the Boks, but the gamble paid off, as South Africa handed the Kiwis the biggest defeat in their history.
However, it has also resulted in an uproar, with calls for World Rugby to limit the number of substitutions that a team can make, and speaking to Virgin Media Sport, Williams claimed the governing body should never have allowed things to get this far.
“The bench was put in place [because] in the old days we had 15 [players] and if you got injured, bad luck. Then they put a bench in,” said Australian Williams, who has coached Scotland, Leinster, Ulster and the Waratahs.
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“But what teams ended up doing was playing someone on the bench as a back-rower and a prop got hurt, they ended up putting back-rowers into the front row and guys got hurt.
“So this whole bench issue is a safety issue; it’s the same with the back three, same with the scrumhalves getting tackled at the breakdown and getting hurt. This was a safety issue to have a bench.
“What South Africa have done is abuse a player safety issue and put a whole pack on the bench. And, it’s against the spirit of the game, and it’s against those safety rules.
“Now World Rugby should’ve seen this coming because for years teams, not just SA, France as well, picking a 6-2 bench, and it should never have been allowed to get to this.
“All World Rugby had to say was three of your bench have to be recognised backs, that’s all that they had to do and this problem would not be there.”
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He added: “What South Africa did the other day is totally against the spirit of the game and certainly against player safety.
“So I am totally against this and I would hope, and don’t believe this will happen, World Rugby should act in the next week and say that during the World Cup you need three recognised backs on your bench, problem over.
“The fact that they haven’t, SA are not breaking any rules, but it is a blight on the game that needs to be stopped right now.
“Because what’s going to happen is what happened on [Friday] where the outside backs should’ve just bought tickets in the stands because they were just spectators. SA just played the game between their forwards and their scrumhalf … it’s not the way the game should be played.”
🗣 “What South Africa did is totally against the spirit of the game and certainly against player safety.
🗣 “World Rugby should act and say ‘during the World Cup you need 3 backs on the bench.”
Matt Williams on South Africa’s 7-1 bench split at Twickenham.
#RWC2023 #VMTVRugby pic.twitter.com/M7VieBrKd3— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) August 29, 2023
Photo: @Springboks/Twitter