RWC 2023 Final - New Zealand v South Africa, 28 October

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NEW ZEALAND v SOUTH AFRICA
28 October 2023
21:00 local time (CEST) (UTC+2)
Stade de France, Saint-Denis

Live on ITV/S4C

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: Karl Dickson, Matthew Carley
Television match official: Tom Foley

A. Head to Head

105 Played 105
62 Won 39
4 Drawn 4
39 Lost 62
2185 Points 1728

B. Recent Form

25 September 2021
North Queensland Stadium, Townsville
19–17 to New Zealand

2 October 2021
Robina Stadium, Gold Coast
29–31 to South Africa

6 August 2022
Mbombela Stadium, Mbombela
26–10 to South Africa

13 August 2022
Ellis Park, Johannesburg
23–35 to New Zealand

15 July 2023
Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
35–20 to New Zealand

25 August 2023
Twickenham Stadium, London
35–7 to South Africa

C. Teams

NEW ZEALAND
B Barrett; Jordan, Ioane, J Barrett, Telea; Mo'unga, Smith; De Groot, Taylor, Lomax, Retallick, S Barrett, Frizell, Cane (capt), Savea.

Replacements: Liernert-Brown for Jordan (71), McKenzie for Mo'unga (75), Christie for Smith (66), Williams for de Groot (66), Taukeiaho for Taylor (66), Papali'i for Retallick (71).Not Used: Laulala, Whitelock.

SOUTH AFRICA
Willemse; Arendse, Kriel, De Allende, Kolbe; Pollard, De Klerk; Kitshoff, Mbonambi, Malherbe, Etzebeth, Mostert, Kolisi (capt), Du Toit, Vermeulen.

Replacements: Fourie for Nbonambi (4) Le Roux for Willemse (66), Nche for Kitshoff (52), Kleyn for Etzebeth (58), Snyman for Mostert (52), Wiese for Kolisi (73), Smith for Vermeulen (58).

Old Man wrote:Well for me it is really about was is more important, the law actually affecting play, or the technically of how far back you can review,

Which is the more important aspect.

If you are in the camp of the technical aspect of how many phases is more important than the fact the move started with a knock on, then you will forever be dissatisfied with the result.

Or option 3 is that we go back to accepting that the refs are human and can make errors, and remove or at least greatly limit the use of the TMO to checking only suspected foul play (that is, incidents that potentially merit cards) and scoring (i.e. grounding and the impact of play in the immediate run-up, so e.g. at the last breakdown checking that there was no blocking off that opened the gap for the ball carrier)

I thought at the time the knock on was fairly obvious, but we (via the TV camera angle) obviously could see things differently from the ref - what wasn't obvious was that the knock on was a consequence of a technical infringement by a SA player. Now the argument as to whether the TMO should be judging knock ons or not is a different one - are we looking for 'perfect' officiating, or just back to being 'good enough'? I know that if this had been England having a score chalked off I'd have been arguing that the TMO should not have been making that judgement, and if we were the defensive team I'd have been screaming there was a knock-on, so it's not exactly a black and white issue (or just call me a hypocrite,,,) - I admit to thinking England got lucky against (iirc) Samoa where the opposition try was chalked off after the conversion because the TMO found evidence of some slight contact between the attacking player's arm and the ball when trying to collect the kick over; felt to me a bit like they went looking for evidence that was far from obvious.

Also still think the NZ try that was given should have been disallowed for a forward pass - I know it was reviewed, but to my eyes no way did the passing players hands go backwards - the problem is that that's a subjective judgement, while the direction the ball actually travels (which was clearly forwards) can be judged objectively.