Willie le Roux in action for the Bulls and arguing with referee Morne Ferreira in URC loss to the Sharks (inset).
Willie le Roux in action for the Bulls and arguing with referee Morne Ferreira in URC loss to the Sharks.
Willie le Roux has been criticised after he was seen remonstrating with the match officials during the Bulls’ United Rugby Championship defeat to the Sharks.
On the same weekend respect towards referees was much debated following Mack Hansen’s outburst after Connacht’s loss to Leinster, a video has shown the South Africa playmaker making his feelings known to the officials in Durban.
It occurred immediately after visiting wing Sebastian de Klerk purposefully knocked the ball dead while under pressure from Ethan Hooker and Makazole Mapimpi.
Before Morne Ferreira had even gone to his television match official to check the score, Le Roux was seen arguing with him about the build-up to the score.
What angered Le Roux
The Springboks full-back was seemingly angered that Ferreira did not play enough advantage when the Sharks had knocked on earlier in the phase.
When Le Roux came to confront him, the referee smiled and tried to calm the situation down before assistant Griffin Colby stepped in and ushered him away.
De Klerk’s actions were then reviewed by the TMO and it resulted in a penalty try and a yellow card for the Bulls wing.
However, some thought that the double Rugby World Cup winner should have joined him in the sin-bin after arguing with Ferreira.
“Should have yellow carded Willie Le Roux for screaming at the officials,” one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter, before another jokingly responded: “He is well on his way becoming a 9 for the Wallabies…”
The video was also posted on Reddit with users particular critical of the Springboks star following his actions, as one person simply wrote: “Whiny le Roux”.
Another added: “Never appropriate. If he wants to yell at the ref he needs to change what sport he plays”, which then begun a debate over Le Roux’s dissent.
A response stated: “He’s lucky the referee was very relaxed here. This could have easily been a penalty against him for dissent and probably should have been.”
‘Refs need to be ruthless’
Backchat has rather crept into the game over recent years and one user felt that Ferreira could have been more “ruthless” with the Bok.
“Definitely should have been [a penalty], and if he continued a yellow/red,” they wrote.
“I support refs being ruthless with teams, they need to be. Politely asking a ref to check something is also more likely to work than screaming in his/her face.
“It’s something I really dislike about the Irish setup atm, we’ve been marched back a good few times recently and it’s unforgivable.”
It is not the first time Le Roux’s sportsmanship has been called into question after he initiated a scuffle following South Africa’s World Cup semi-final victory over England last year.
“I’m pretty surprised that such a gracious semi final winner could be so upset by a refereeing decision,” one person quipped.
