Rassie Erasmus says Romain Poite’s decision to yellow card Willie le Roux at Murrayfield was a tough one for the referee to make.
The Bok fullback was sent to the sin bin during the second half of the match against Scotland after Poite judged that he had intentionally knocked a long pass from centre Peter Horne.
Had Le Roux caught the ball, he would have most certainly been in for an intercept try, but by failing to do so he ended a Scotland attack near the Springbok 22.
WATCH: Le Roux yellow-carded by Poite
While the Boks conceded three points when the fullback was off, from the penalty he gave away, they also scored three of their own.
Speaking after the Boks’ 26-20 win, Erasmus admitted the call was a tough one for Poite to make but added that his team had been the beneficiary of similar calls in the past.
‘It’s a yellow card. He gave a yellow card and we have to live with that,’ Erasmus said. ‘We’ve had some yellow-card decisions going for us where we thought the team playing against us was unlucky to get a yellow card.
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‘I think Willie tried to catch the ball. If he catches it in a different way it’s OK, but if you catch it in another way it’s not OK.
‘I think it’s tough. It’s tough for the referee on the field and tough for the TMO. There are so many difficult areas around it so for me to criticise it would just be stupid.
‘The positive is that you know that nobody is cheating,’ Erasmus added. ‘Once you know that nobody is nailing anyone on purpose, we can all live with it.
‘Maybe we’re just in this transition period to get it right, like football did with technology. Maybe we just need to hang in there. Nobody is trying to cheat.’
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