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18th November 2025
05:00pm GMT
Safe to say South African fans are not too pleased with Irish rugby at the minute.
A fiery bunch at the best of times, their grievances began last month when Springbok Jan-Hendrik Wessels was given an eight-game ban for the alleged grope of Josh Murphy's testicles when playing for the Bulls against Connacht.
However, despite Murphy's adamant claims, there was no conclusive video evidence that the incident occurred.
Lood de Jager was then handed a four-game ban for a red card tackle against France in South Africa's Autumn Nations Series two weeks ago, while Franco Mostert was sent off for a high hit against Italy last weekend.
Many supporters felt that there was enough mitigation in both incidents for the cards to be yellow, while assistant coach Mzwandile Stick claimed to the media that his team are treated unfairly.
Furthermore, the World Rugby offices are located in Dublin.
All of the incidences caused Springbok supporters to chime in on Sam Prendergast's tackle on Australia's James O'Connor at the weekend, which they felt saw the Irish out-half make contact to O'Connor's head with his shoulder.
However, the referee deemed that it was a legal hit.
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