Steve Walsh gets the TMO to up the speed
South Africa v Wales Second test
In the 46th minute hooker Ken Owens gets near the goal line and bounces off Beast Mtawarira and into the welcoming arms of eighthman Duane Vermuellen. The ball is grounded short but Owens’ grip is loosened and it rotates forward perhaps with a finger or two in contact.
Examining a couple of slow motion shots to get the sequence you can see the ball leaving the fingers still short of the goal line; later the fingers are back on it when it is on the goal line.
Ken Owens (v Wallabies 2013) – lost contact with the ball
Steve Walsh says to the TMO:
I definitely want to see it at full speed…slow motion looks way worse.
He saw the full speed shot and awarded the try, but at full speed you couldn’t see the fingers off, the ball moving forward, and the fingers back on.
“Knock on” I would have called it.
That wasn’t the only incident the officials were involved in.
The test match
It was the 29th game between the two countries and Wales had won only one game and drawn one—and they had never won in South Africa.
South Africa played the crappiest they have played for years and were dominated physically and mentally by Wales in the first half.
The visitors were ahead 17-0 at the half hour mark when Gethin Jenkins gave a penalty away and the Boks got into the corner and did their lineout drive. After some transgressions Wales’ lock Luke Chateris got binned for wearing the wrong coloured jersey joining the maul.
Willie le Roux – in like Flynn
Still mauling afterwards flyhalf Dan Biggar went to ground and the maul fell on top of him. He went to the bin too and Walsh awarded a penalty try to South Africa.
Against 13 men South Africa scored another try; so Wales had gone through a 14-point nightmare in a few minutes.
After half time the Owens try happened and following a few penalties Wales were 13 points ahead with 15 minutes to go.
Maybe two points short I thought: they will give the ball to Willie. It took them a while to do it but Willie le Roux was in like Flynn; however Wales were still ahead by six with ten minutes to go.
Cornal Hendricks about to get hammered by Williams
In the 76th minute Bok winger Cornal Hendricks charged for the corner beating George North, and then fullback Liam Williams (spectacularly unsuccessful as a replacement for Leigh Halfpenny in the two test matches) didn’t have the balls to use his arms in the tackle, and shoulder-charged him into touch.
After a Steve Walsh reality show, a correct penalty try decision was given. Had Williams used arms Hendricks would have scored anyway, but the conversion would have been from near touch.
South Africa was one point ahead 31-30.
Then one of the funniest periods of test rugby happened when Wales got the ball in the Bok half for the last couple of minutes. Here were the SAffers like Goodie Two Shoes almost asking the ref every time if they could compete at a ruck. And talk about players being onside !! In was like fat guys in green jerseys playing croquet.
In the end Wales ran out of patience and Biggar tried a drop goal from his own half. It was short and South Africa won 31-30.
