Sanzaar has confirmed that TMO Marius Jonker’s ruling of a forward pass in the recent clash between the Stormers and Crusaders was wrong.
Last Saturday, Jean-Luc du Plessis kicked a last-minute penalty to earn the Stormers a 19-19 draw with the Crusaders at Newlands. Since then, some have focused on captain Siya Kolisi’s call to go for the draw instead of the win. Many more, however, have debated the call made only moments before that effectively cost the Crusaders the game.
Braydon Ennor threw a long pass to Sevu Reece in the 75th minute, and the winger went on to score a try. TMO Marius Jonker, however, ruled that the pass was forward and the try was disallowed.
Scott Robertson didn’t speak about the forward-pass decision immediately after the game at Newlands. On Thursday, however, the Crusaders coach said that the decision was wrong and that Sanzaar has admitted as much.
‘It’s a momentum game. Look, they [Sanzaar] just cleared up that the ruling was wrong,’ Robertson told stuff.co.nz.
‘We got clarity of the understanding of the rule, if it’s backwards out of the hand, the pass is going backwards. Obviously, momentum is a big part of why it looked forward, but it isn’t forward.
‘It would be a pretty tough game of rugby [if you had] to stand still and pass backwards.’
Jonker will not be officiating this weekend.
Photo: Steve Haag/Gallo Images
