The Gloves are off!

[Jatz]

From Scrum.com

Phillips slams 'disgusting' Boks

British & Irish Lions scrum-half Mike Phillips has slammed the Springboks following their series-clinching victory over the Lions at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, branding their off-the-ball shots as 'disgusting'.

Flanker Schalk Burger has been handed an eight week ban for gouging Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald, while lock Bakkies Botha was also hit with a suspension after dislocating prop Adam Jones' shoulder with an illegal charge. The Lions were left reeling due to a heavy injury list in the second-half, with Brian O'Driscoll, Jamie Roberts, Gethin Jenkins and Tommy Bowe all requiring serious attention following the bruising contest.

Burger's indiscretion was punished by a yellow card from referee Christophe Berdos, while tough judge Bryce Lawrence was unclear in describing it as "yellow at least". Phillips believes that there was no room for manoeuvre however, insisting that Burger should have seen red after only 30 seconds of his 50th Test.

"They (South Africa) seemed to be able to get away with a lot of punching, gouging and what not," said the Lions scrum-half. "We are the straight guys, and we came out second-best. It's not good enough. It (Burger incident) was a clear red card, as simple as that.

"You can't do things like that. It should have been a straight red and it cost us the game, really. There were punches going on off the ball throughout the game. All you can do is play by the rules. You can play hard, be a tough man on the pitch, but play within the rules. As a professional you work your socks off all week, you come to the pinnacle of your sport and things like that happen.

"You have just got to leave it in the referee's hands. Referees are paid to do a job and we are paid to try to entertain. Lukey (Fitzgerald) said he had to pull his (Burger's) hand off his eyes. That's not sport, that's not the way we play. It is not the gentlemanly thing to do - it's disgusting."

Phillips was one of a number of Lions to excel at Loftus, with fly-half Stephen Jones, fullback Rob Kearney and veteran lock Simon Shaw all fighting to the death.

"We thought it was our day," said Phillips. "It is gutting to lose in the last second like that - it's horrible. People said we had no chance, but we were by far the better team. It was a great opportunity, a chance to make our dreams come true, but it is all about winning."

 

[Gagger]

I thought they handed out 6 month bans for this sort of thing

 

[Epi]

I couldn't believe it when Burger got a yellow card - up to his knuckles right in front of the touchie.... Its no secret that the Boks are disgusting and it won them the series.

Their country must be so proud of them...

 

[Gagger]

The EEELs and their supporters are making a very serious habit of a succession, in each series, of (1) telling the world they will smash their opponents (2) losing (3) blaming their opponents' thuggery for losing (4) denying their own thuggery and (5) refusing to give their opponents any respect or credit. They have done that three series in a row now, with the scoreboard showing them down 1-7.

Methinks it's time for a rigorous re-think of the concept.

I can go for most of that.

But fingers in eyes is 8 weeks? Do you need to pull em out with an eyeball for a decent ban?

 

[Jatz]

Still can't believe de Villiers is defending Burger. That guy seems to be a total moron.

How good could the be with a good coach???

 

[Hugonaut]

The EEELs and their supporters are making a very serious habit of a succession, in each series, of (1) telling the world they will smash their opponents (2) losing (3) blaming their opponents' thuggery for losing (4) denying their own thuggery and (5) refusing to give their opponents any respect or credit. They have done that three series in a row now, with the scoreboard showing them down 1-7.

1] Disagree - most people in the NH thought that it was an average 6N [I'm Irish, I thought it was the best one for 61 years ;D], a non-vintage selection of players to choose from, and a big ask to beat the reigning World Champions, who are not yet showing any signs of decline. People were pretty pessimistic up north, in general.

2] Agree - the Lions do lose a lot.

3] On the fence with this one - they do complain a lot, but not without reason. Burger's offense is self-evident, and a sending off would clearly have had a huge effect on the game. Mealamu and Umaga's taking out of O'Driscoll was also brutal and dangerous [and not at all f*cking legal, despite what the p¡ss-poor officials and the spineless citing commissioner thought], but the All Blacks would still have beaten them, most likely still have whitewashed them. That was a sh¡t tour.

4] Every side denies their own thuggery. That's not associated solely with the Lions – ladies and gentlemen, I give you Messers de Villiers and Henry. I can name three test-series defining pieces of foul play from the hosts, one from each tour – Nathan Grey's blindside elbow on Richard Hill, the aforementioned O'Driscoll spear courtesy of Mealamu and Umaga, and Burger's eye-gouge on Fitzgerald.

Now you give your incidences of Lions foul play in the three most recent series and the importance it had on the respective games.

5] Yep, they're muppets for that in fairness. Graham Henry is a Kiwi, so you couldn't have expected much from him in 2001 regarding gracefulness in defeat. Clive Woodward is a complete and utter tool, so ditto. Geech, on the other hand, is a true gentleman and legend of the game and will doubtless give congratulations to the Boks at the end of the series. I can understand at the moment why he'd be a little sour, given the last minute nature of the loss and Burger's brutal gouging going unpunished.

I think that deep down, deep down in your little Wallaby pouch, you can probably understand it too, Biffo. Also, you have a frankly amazing chip on your shoulder. Truly impressive.

 

[Blue]

I couldn't believe it when Burger got a yellow card - up to his knuckles right in front of the touchie.... Its no secret that the Boks are disgusting and it won them the series.

Their country must be so proud of them...

This is unfortunately how most people will react to the series. The fact that the Boks blew them off the park in the first half of the first test and came back from the dead in the second test will be lost on most.

If you're really objective you will see that the Lions did everything in their power to unsettle the Boks and get them invovled in a scrap. After every contact O'Driscoll was pushing and screaming like a little bitch. Sheridan continuously tried to provoke people (esp Botha) and he hit Bekker in the nuts.

Take the Burger incident out of it and you will see there were no angels in this game.

To suggest foul play won us the test is just plain silly.

 

[Scarfman]

OK, I kind of want to get involved here on an official level.

Not all Boks are thugs, not all Poms are whingers. But yes, if you wanted to look for it, there's a bit of a tendency there on both sides.

This Bok side is terrific - 15 man rugby at last. I love to watch them, and I even think that Bakkies is one of the best players of the professional era. The Martin Johnson English side was pretty close to the dirtiest international side I've ever seen, so it's a bit rich for the BILs to be crying about it.

And of course - yes - in slow motion the gouge was a red card, but unless there is systematic bias or incompetence from the ref it's a bit rich to blame the loss on one decision.

Let's put it this way - Bakkies, Burger are complete fuckwits on the pitch. Phillips' claim that the Lions "were by far the better side" reveals a lot about him. But let's not get too carried away with the national stereotypes, OK?

 

[rustycruiser]

Modus operandi : Can't win on the field, so try for the win in the press.

 

[Blue]

OK, I kind of want to get involved here on an official level.

Not all Boks are thugs, not all Poms are whingers. But yes, if you wanted to look for it, there's a bit of a tendency there on both sides.

This Bok side is terrific - 15 man rugby at last. I love to watch them, and I even think that Bakkies is one of the best players of the professional era. The Martin Johnson English side was pretty close to the dirtiest international side I've ever seen, so it's a bit rich for the BILs to be crying about it.

And of course - yes - in slow motion the gouge was a red card, but unless there is systematic bias or incompetence from the ref it's a bit rich to blame the loss on one decision.

Let's put it this way - Bakkies, Burger are complete fuckwits on the pitch. Phillips' claim that the Lions "were by far the better side" reveals a lot about him. But let's not get too carried away with the national stereotypes, OK?

Welsh whinging. Nothing new. Oops. I am generalizing again. Tut tut.

 

[Epi]

I couldn't believe it when Burger got a yellow card - up to his knuckles right in front of the touchie.... Its no secret that the Boks are disgusting and it won them the series.

Their country must be so proud of them...

This is unfortunately how most people will react to the series. The fact that the Boks blew them off the park in the first half of the first test and came back from the dead in the second test will be lost on most.

If you're really objective you will see that the Lions did everything in their power to unsettle the Boks and get them invovled in a scrap. After every contact O'Driscoll was pushing and screaming like a little bitch. Sheridan continuously tried to provoke people (esp Botha) and he hit Bekker in the nuts.

Take the Burger incident out of it and you will see there were no angels in this game.

To suggest foul play won us the test is just plain silly.

Objective? Probably not. Nothing emotes quite like watching a player try to blind another. Sadly a serial offender from a team that is infamous for that sort of thing. Is an 8 week ban going to reverse the trend?

I was actually hoping for a Springbok win.. for about 55 seconds.

 

[rustycruiser]

I couldn't believe it when Burger got a yellow card - up to his knuckles right in front of the touchie.... Its no secret that the Boks are disgusting and it won them the series.

Their country must be so proud of them...

I thought it was scoring more tries and kicking more points that won South Africa the series? Am I watching a different game?

 

[fatprop]

I actually think if the Boks cut out the off the ball stuff and focussed on rugby they would be near unstoppable.

 

[louie]

if he was red carded, as he should have been, boks wouldn't have one. simple as that.

 

[formeropenside]

if he was red carded, as he should have been, boks wouldn't have one. simple as that.

and a pretty calculated risk to take that a ref would not want to red card him in the opening minute of the game

makes last year's vd linde headbutt look tame (which apparently the judiciary thought it was)

 

[Scarfman]

If we're whingeing about the ref, how about BOD running out of the line to swing an arm at the head of Danie Rousseau? Knocks him out, no penalty. Gee, if only they'd got a penalty there, they'd have won the game by 6!!

 

[Hugonaut]

If we're whingeing about the ref, how about BOD running out of the line to swing an arm at the head of Danie Rousseau? Knocks him out, no penalty. Gee, if only they'd got a penalty there, they'd have won the game by 6!!

The video is posted on the Lions Tour thread. It's a clash of heads, end of story. Both players concussed from it. If you want to compare that to Burger's gouge, it's up to you.

 

[Scarfman]

A clash of heads?? Be reasonable, man, it was a premeditated swinging arm to the head.

 

[Thomond78]

OK, I kind of want to get involved here on an official level.

Not all Boks are thugs, not all Poms are whingers. But yes, if you wanted to look for it, there's a bit of a tendency there on both sides.

This Bok side is terrific - 15 man rugby at last. I love to watch them, and I even think that Bakkies is one of the best players of the professional era. The Martin Johnson English side was pretty close to the dirtiest international side I've ever seen, so it's a bit rich for the BILs to be crying about it.

And of course - yes - in slow motion the gouge was a red card, but unless there is systematic bias or incompetence from the ref it's a bit rich to blame the loss on one decision.

Let's put it this way - Bakkies, Burger are complete fuckwits on the pitch. Phillips' claim that the Lions "were by far the better side" reveals a lot about him. But let's not get too carried away with the national stereotypes, OK?

Scarfie, Bryce Lawrence's own words were:

"I could see it clearly, clearly fingers in the eye, you know? Six green."

And when he's asked by Berdos - whose first language is French, btw - "Yellow card?", says, "I think it's at least a yellow card" - emphasis in the original.

He saw it, thought it was deliberate, but didn't want to be the one to say "red" for Burger clearly reaching up and putting his fingers into the eyes of a winger when the two were flat on their back on the ground. He bottled it.

Here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X__kjEjTNro

 

[Hugonaut]

A clash of heads?? Be reasonable, man, it was a premeditated swinging arm to the head.

God damn it, I'm trying to be reasonable! ;D I have an innate bias towards O'Driscoll, I admit.

Don't see a swinging arm catching Danie Roussouw in the head though ... actually just made a screen grab from the YouTube of the incident, but I'm not sure how to post it here - any pointers?

This is my black leather glove evidence* - "And if the gloves don't fit, you must acquit!"

*Johnny Cochrane for OJ [although maybe my comparing O'Driscoll's innocence to OJ's "innocence" sort of shoots my argument in the foot ... or the head ]