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Boks assistant coach hoping officials 'treat every team equally' in All Blacks v South Africa match

September 16, 2019

Mzwandile Stick said the Springboks and the All Blacks were on an even footing after some close results.

Springboks assistant coach Mzwandile Stick has asked for officials to respect the game ahead of his team’s World Cup opener against New Zealand on Saturday in a bizarre request that seemed to hint that the All Blacks get the favourable calls from referees.

Stick listed off the team’s recent results against the back-to-back defending World Cup champions before saying he hoped the officials respected the games and its fans.

“If you look at the past three games that we played against the All Blacks where we played them in Wellington last year, won by two points, they came to Pretoria won by two points and then drew against them this year in Wellington,” he said.

“With the fans also this year probably excited and looking forward to this one, hopefully the match officials will also respect the game, if you think at the way things are currently between us and New Zealand, we’re more balanced now.”

“Hopefully like I said the officials will treat every team equally and respect the game and also respect the fans because of once again, probably a lot of people are excited and looking forward to this World Cup.”

Asked to elaborate on any particular areas that the Boks wanted officials to focus on, Stick said there weren’t any but referenced the All Blacks’ seemingly perennial status as World Cup favourites.

“No normally when you look at the previous history with the All Blacks, they’ve been dominating when it comes to Test match level and it’s always the case that whenever they come to the World Cup they become favourites,” Stick said.

“If you look at the top five teams in world rankings, you’ll feel like all those top five teams have a chance to win the World Cup on a good day.”

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