Spiro Zavos has no time for the complaints of the Springboks in The Sydney Morning Herald.
"Saloons in the Wild West often carried a notice: "Do not shoot the pianist, he is doing his best." This instruction came to mind when the madcap coach of the Springboks, Peter de Villiers, tried to explain his team's two comprehensive losses to the All Blacks.
"De Villiers suggested the Springboks had been persecuted by the referees. He threatened to "prepare guys to cheat" to turn this around. For the record, the penalty/free kick count at Wellington under the Irishman Alain Rolland was 10-9 in favour of New Zealand. One penalty to South Africa was turned around after Danie Rossouw was given a yellow card for flicking Richie McCaw in the eyes and then kneeing him.
"This hardly seems like the persecution of a team that was outplayed. And at Auckland in the first Tri Nations Test, the Springboks were awarded seven consecutive penalties in the middle part of the match, and were well ahead in the penalty count despite being thrashed on the scoreboard."
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