Controversial Penalty Kick Shocks England in Rugby World Cup Semi-Final against South Africa

In the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup, England against South Africa were at the long end for almost the whole match. However, after a violation of the rules at the mill in the 77th minute and a subsequent penalty kick converted by Handré Pollard, she lost the match at the very end. In an interview for iROZHLAS.cz, the sports director of the Czech Rugby Union, Roman Šuster, spoke not only about this tense situation.

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14:27 October 22, 2023 Share on Facebook


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The fight between the rugby players of England and South Africa in the semi-finals of the World Cup | Photo: Eliot Blondet / ABACAPRESS.COM | Source: Reuters

The tense duel between England and the Republic of South Africa was significantly influenced by the situation from the 77th minute, when a penalty kick was awarded to the Republic of South Africa after a violation of the rules at the mill. Do you think the judges made the right decision?
I think that the situation was not assessed correctly. The penalty kick should have been played the other way. I haven’t studied the situation closely, but when I saw it on TV yesterday, it was badly whistled.

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How do you explain that there were a lot of mistakes from both teams in the match, especially in the attacking phase?
The weather, but also the characteristics of the teams, how they play. Because it rained a lot, it was a big fight and they used a lot of kicks. At the same time, nervousness and pressure for the result played a role there. It was an extremely important match.

What do you think of England’s great entry into the game?
Before the match I predicted South Africa to win. During the match, I was convinced that it would be the other way around. England were the better team for most of the match, but unfortunately they failed to score in the end, which the Africans did. Considering that the Africans gave the only five in the game, they kind of deserved it.

Although the mill from the 77th minute was very questionable, when it should not have been a free kick against England. England were better throughout the match, South Africa pulled the short end of the stick and the English were somewhat robbed of victory.

The match was decorated with a drop goal by Owen Farrell. What do you think about this unusual situation?
He was great. It wasn’t easy at all to kick it like that. Farrell was under pressure and kicked it from distance. It was a beautiful individual event and could have decided England’s victory. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way for her.

What do you expect from the final between New Zealand and South Africa?
I would like nice and attacking rugby to be played. New Zealand will have the upper hand, I like their game significantly more than the Africans.

Ondřej Váchal

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