SPRINGBOKS ASSISTANT COACH Mzwandile Stick said they feel they aren’t being treated in the same manner as other teams when it comes to refereeing decisions.

The Springboks have been on the receiving end of permanent red cards in both of their last two games against France and Italy, with second rows Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert sent off for high tackles.

And after landing in Dublin yesterday ahead of this Saturday’s big clash with Ireland at the Aviva Stadium, the Springboks have voiced their unhappiness with the situation.

De Jager was handed a three-game ban in the wake of his red card against the French, but the Springboks are in the process of appealing that decision, while they are also set to contest Mostert’s red card at a hearing in the coming days.

Stick, one of Rassie Erasmus’ assistant coaches, laid out their concerns at the Springboks’ first media event of the week in Dublin.

“As a team, we are just disappointed with how things are flowing at the moment,” said Stick.

“Every week we are losing players and it’s sad. The build-up to the Italy game was good. If you look at the Italian side, how they played the previous week, and the spirit in Turin, everyone was looking forward to the game and then for the game to turn the way it did.

“Because if you are saying that Franco Mostert is a red card, probably over the weekend, if you saw the incidents, surely there was supposed to be more than five red cards.

“All of a sudden, other situations become yellow card and we are just disappointed with the way things are being handled at the moment.

“Once again, if you look at the actions of Franco Mostert, and Lood de Jager the previous week, he has done everything by the book.

“His only mistake was just maybe the contact was here [chest] but it ended up in the head. I don’t understand how does that becomes permanent, but I think from our side as coaches, we still have to work hard because we’re working with these guys.

“You can see they’re nice and tall [Stick points to Eben Etzebeth sitting alongside him]. They try to do everything by the book, but because it’s rugby, it’s a physical game.

Franco Mostert was given a permanent red card in Italy. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

“Sometimes you don’t get it perfect, but for them to say the tackle was never legal, it’s disappointing. Because once again, like I said, that game could have been a very nice, beautiful game of rugby to watch.

“Italy, they deserve the respect, you know, and I feel that they had everything in their power to control the game.

“So for other people to get involved, and I feel for the ref because if we understood the communication that was happening between him and his team outside him, probably about 21 decisions that were supposed to be made in the first half or the first 45 minutes, 20 of them went against us, not because of the ref. Unfortunately, he has to respect the comms from his team outside.

“So yeah, disappointed at it, but once again, I feel for Italy and I would like to apologise how things turned out, because they’ve got a good coaching staff and then their players also were up with the game, but for other things to happen like that, I don’t think they deserve what they’ve got in that game.”

When he was asked if the Springboks feel they are being treated unfairly, Stick also mentioned the recent bans for South African internationals Makazole Mapimpi and Jan-Hendrick Wessels while they were on URC duty with the Sharks and Bulls, respectively.

“I’m not too sure,” said Stick. “I don’t want to say things and then I end up also being banned like Rassie in the past, you know.

“But once again, if you look at the past four red cards for our players, we had Makazole Mapimpi suspended, who’s not on tour at the moment. The guy’s on 47 Test matches; he missed out on an opportunity to make it to 50.

“Jan-Hendrik Wessels, a youngster, also missed out, suspended.

“Lood de Jager, after this weekend and everything that I’ve seen, even the Fiji and France game, the cleanouts that were there, the Ireland game against Australia, situations that were even worse than what those guys have been suspended for, but other players will come back and play this week.

“So surely somewhere, somehow this is not fair and I don’t think we deserve this as a team.

“We’re doing everything in our powers to make sure that we send the right message when it comes to how we play the game. We play in a good spirit. We’ve never talked bad about other teams. We always try to play in a good spirit and hopefully things can just be between the four lines, you know.

“So, are we treated fairly? I don’t think so.”