Opinion – Adnaan Mohamed
Welcome to another breathtaking episode of Rugby Officials Gone Wild, where referees improvise, TMOs hallucinate, and World Rugby’s disciplinary panels sweep up the mess like long-suffering parents at a children’s birthday party.
This week’s headliner? Springbok lock Franco Mostert sent off in Turin after referee James Doleman and his French TMO partner squinted at a replay and dramatically declared “clear head contact” and “always illegal”, which we now know was about as accurate as a prop attempting a chip-and-chase.
On Wednesday, actual functioning adults on the disciplinary panel calmly overturned the red card, downgrading it to a yellow and effectively telling the match officials:
“You were wrong. Spectacularly wrong. Please stop embarrassing yourselves at this altitude.”
But wait, the chaos gets better. Not only was Mostert’s dismissal wrong, but Harry Hockings’ red card was ALSO declared incorrect by a separate independent panel.
That’s right: two red cards, two panels, zero functioning officiating moments. Rugby’s governance is starting to feel like a group project where one guy does the work and the rest just show up with snacks.
And Rassie Erasmus? Eddie Jones? Oh, they were THRILLED.
Both stormed into their press conferences like two coaches who’d just watched their debit orders bounce. Steam, fire, smoke signals, everything short of interpretive dance.
Meanwhile, the bunker review system, the expensive technological safety net installed specifically to stop this exact variety of nonsense, was NOT USED.
Not consulted.
Not even glanced at.
They left it sitting there like a lonely gym bike in January.
Instead, Doleman and his TMO opted for the “wing it and pray” method: a bold, innovative approach with a near-perfect failure rate.
The ruling now exposes rugby’s head-contact framework as a full-blown Picasso painting: abstract, confusing, and open to interpretation by anyone with enough confidence and a whistle.
One weekend a player gets red for breathing too aggressively; the next weekend someone performs a WWE finishing move and walks away with a warning.
And through it all, the Springboks just keep winning, like a team powered entirely by spite and trauma.
Two weekends.
Two red cards for the No. 5 jersey.
Two matches with 14 men for ridiculous lengths of time.
Two victories.
France? Beaten with 40+ minutes a man down.
Italy? Smashed with 65+ minutes one man short, AND fielding fringe players.
The message?
“Give us 14, give them 15 – see who cries first.”
Now South Africans are coping the only way they know how:
By laughing at the officiating until it cries back.
With Mostert cleared, he’s available for the showdown in Dublin, a place where the Boks haven’t won since the world last took Blackberry phones seriously.
The last time the Boks were on the winning side in Ireland was 13 years go. The Irish have won four of the last five against South Africa, including that World Cup group-stage arm wrestle in 2023.
The Boks name their team Thursday. And if fate has a sense of humour, the referee will keep his red card in his pocket this weekend, or at least try to.
But with the way things are going in rugby’s officiating universe, expect anything: a red card for tying your boots too slowly; a yellow for “intent to run upright”; a penalty for existing in the wrong postcode.
Sit tight.
The circus continues.
And the clowns, unfortunately, are still in charge.