All eyes will be on match officials in tomorrow’s second test between the Springboks and the British and Irish Lions.
South Africa’s Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus used social media to highlight the calls he found to be questionable and incorrect in the first test match that the Springboks narrowly lost 22-17.
At the same time, the British and the Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland also questioned the appointment of South African Marius Jonker as a TMO in the previous match.
Springbok backline coach Mwandile Stick says they will not allow any off-the-field incidents to spoil such a historic occasion.
“I feel like you know what we not asking for any favours. We just want equal grounds you know because once again this took about twelve years to get to where we are at the moment, so I wouldn’t love the series to be all about the decisions that were taken by the officials or the whole vibe about the coaches off the field,” says Stick.
The Springboks played well in the first half, but dropped their heads in the latter stages of the second half that saw them losing the opening test match.
Captain Siya Kolisi says they have rectified their mistakes, and know what to do to level the series. Kolisi admits that the team is under a lot of pressure to deliver.
“There is pressure, a lot of pressure actually but we had to focus on what we can control and like I said earlier we made sure we fix the mistakes that we made during the game. We were fixing that during the week we saw where we got attacked and where they benefitted most in the game and things they did, and what was said in the week is to focus on those things and that’s what we did this week. I think we all responded we trained well hopefully it’s going to show tomorrow”. says Bok captain Siya Kolisi.
