SPRINGBOKS CENTRE JESSE Kriel won’t be cited for a possible high tackle early in his side’s Pool B win over Scotland in Marseille last night.
The South African centre tackled Scotland number eight Jack Dempsey early in the game and there appeared to be head contact involved, but the incident was not flagged with referee Angus Gardner by TMO Ben Whitehouse for an official review.
Speaking after the game, Scotland boss Gregor Townsend shared his surprise that there hadn’t been a formal review of the incident.
There had been some speculation that Kriel could be cited for his tackle, but that won’t be the case.
It’s understood that Whitehouse did examine the incident during the game but didn’t find clear and obvious illegal head contact. And while the official 36-hour citing window remains open until tomorrow morning, it appears that the citing commissioner hasn’t seen illegal head contact either. Both officials benefit from access to around 15 different camera angles.
Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said today that it hadn’t been a direct head contact.
“We are really comfortable. There hasn’t been a citing, I’m pretty sure there won’t be a citing,” said Erasmus.
“If it isn’t direct head contact, and it wasn’t, it was tackled on the ball and then he moved up after tackling on the ball. I’ve seen a few stills where people just [show] after direct contact to the ball.
“If you took it a millisecond or a second or two back, you’ll see that he clearly tackled on the ball. So we’re very happy with how it was refereed.
“I think Finn Russell’s call [when he was penalised for a no-arms challenge on Kurt-Lee Arendse] was much closer. Unfortunately, he got injured then, I think that deflected a little bit from the action that he did, but we were happy with the decision that was made.
“Obviously, there’s some time to do citings still but I’ll be very surprised for the indirect contact, with first contact on the ball, that there will be anything from that.”
It means that Kriel should be available for the Springboks against Ireland in their huge Pool B clash in Paris on 23 September.
The South Africans face Romania in their second pool game next weekend but it’s expected that Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber will rotate for that fixture.
Kriel could still play against the Romanians, of course, but if he comes through unscathed, he looks certain to start at outside centre against Ireland.
- This article was updated at 6.39pm to correct the duration of the citing window from 24 hours to 36 hours.