Nigel Owens: What I would have done with Nic White, Koroibete

Retired referee Nigel Owens has revealed how he would have handled the recent incidents involving Marika Koroibete and Nic White.

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Koroibete completed a highly contentious try-saving tackle on Makazole Mapimpi during their Rugby Championship win over the Springboks in the first clash between the two sides last month.

However opinion was quickly divided: Was it one of the all-time great try-saving tackles or an illegal hit that should have been penalised?

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The same game also saw another controversial incident when Faf de Klerk was yellow-carded for a seemingly innocuous accident when he happened to brush the face of opposite number Nic White.

De Klerk had tried to knock the ball out of White’s hands at a scrum, but instead made contact with his face instead, and referee Paul Williams saw enough to send the blonde No 9 to the sin-bin for 10 minutes.

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Nigel Owens, one of the game’s most well-known and experienced former referees, has now provided his views on both incidents. His views will most certainly please South African supporters, many of whom held a similar view.

“What I would have done is your first offence is De Klerk getting it wrong, completely accidental, no intent, it’s a penalty. What you have then is a totally unacceptable reaction from Nic White and against the values of the game. So I would have reversed the penalty and penalised him for his actions. I would have said to him ‘You are not in the theatre, you are on the rugby field, where are your rugby values? You can’t behave like that.’

“Rugby can’t take the moral high ground and complain about footballers rolling around and pretending to be hurt because it does happen in rugby. It doesn’t happen often, but, as we saw in this game, rugby players can sometimes behave in not a rugby way. When it does happen, rugby tends to deal with it. Unfortunately in this instance, that didn’t happen. That was the disappointing thing for me. Nic White shouldn’t have got away with it and should have had a good stern talking to about rugby values, at least, even if the referee decided against penalising him.”

Owens also suggested the tackle by Koroibete was illegal

I have looked at it many times and I’m finding it difficult to see this as anything but an illegal tackle by Koroibete. To me, he leads with his shoulder and his arm is tucked down by his side. There’s not an attempt to wrap, for me.

What happens in a legal tackle is as the shoulder makes contact your arm then, in that split second, is simultaneously wrapping at the same time. Your arm is out ready to grasp and as the shoulder hits the arm clamps around.

But, if you look at the moment when Koroibete’s shoulder makes contact, his arm is down by his side. It’s not in an action or an attempt to wrap. That is the key. I can’t see a simultaneous wrap with the hit of the shoulder and that’s why I think it’s foul play.

He’s gone in with shoulder first and it should be a penalty and a yellow card. You are probably looking at a penalty try as well. It’s not the type of tackle I would like to see happening in every game.

You can read the full column by Owens here

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