Springbok Star Criticized for Referee Confrontation Following Disputed Penalty Try.
Criticism has been unleashed on Willie le Roux after he was seen ranting against match officials during Bulls’ defeat to the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship.
The debate, regarding the topics on respect to referees in the same weekend, started with Mack Hansen’s outburst following the match played at the Connacht grounds, and then a clip showed the South Africa playmaker voicing his displeasure at the officials in Durban.
It happened a moment after visiting wing Sebastian de Klerk intentionally knocked the ball dead while versing Ethan Hooker and Makazole Mapimpi.
Before Morne Ferreira could go to his television match official to check out the score, Le Roux was already arguing with him about whether the score counted.
What angered Le Roux
Ferreira was thought to have disappointed the Springboks gray full-back in not playing a long enough advantage when the Sharks had knocked the ball forward during the earlier phase.
As Le Roux approached the referee to argue, the official smiled and attempted to calm the situation down before assistant Griffin Colby stepped in to usher him away.
De Klerk’s actions were reviewed by the TMO, resulting in a penalty try and a yellow card for the wing from the Bulls.
There have even been some who say that the winner of two Rugby World Cups should have found himself cocooned within the sin-bin for the argument with Ferreira.
“Should have yellow carded Willie Le Roux for screaming at the officials,” one user wrote on platform X, former Twitter. Another replied jestingly: “He is well on his way becoming a 9 for the Wallabies…”
Others sponsored the video on Reddit, where some were particularly hard on the Springboks’ star arguing about his deeds, as one simply wrote: “Whiny le Roux”.
Another added: “Never appropriate. If he wants to yell at the ref he needs to change what sport he plays”, which then began a debate over Le Roux’s dissent.
One reply stated: “He’s lucky the referee was very relaxed here. This could have easily been a penalty against him for dissent, and probably should have been.”
‘Refs need to be ruthless’
Backchat has rather crept into the game over recent years, and one of those users seems to feel that Ferreira could have been a little bit “ruthless” with the Bok. “Definitely should have been [a penalty], and if he continued a yellow/red,” they wrote.
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Sure, I think they can be harsh on the teams, though, really. Politely asking a ref to take a look into something is probably more likely to yield something than screaming in his/her face.
“That’s something I don’t like about the Irish set-up at the moment. We have been contested back a couple of times, and that is just unforgivable.”
It had happened when Le Roux instigated a scuffle after the semi-final victory of South Africa against England at the last World Cup.
“Such a gracious semi-final winner and yet so sore over a refereeing decision,” quipped one.
