Stuart Hogg denies biting Le Roux after ‘foul play’ goes viral

The two full backs were engaged in a scuffle in the immediate aftermath of Conor Murray, the Lions scrum half, being taken out in the air by Cheslin Kolbe, the Springboks wing.

Le Roux was animated as he made a point to the officials once the incident had calmed down, resulting in just a yellow card for Kolbe when many believed the tackle warranted a red.

In the statement, Hogg said, “Following speculation that has surfaced online, I would like to categorically deny any foul play in last night’s game. I would never bite an opponent and I am annoyed and upset by this unsubstantiated accusation. I’ve always been proud of playing rugby in the spirit of the game.

“Respect to the Springboks for their deserved win yesterday. The squad is hurting after last night’s defeat, but it’s all to play for next week. It’s going to be a cup final and everyone’s going to be up for it.”

The citing officer had 12 hours in which to bring any charges for incidents of foul play in the highly-charged Test match but that period has since been extended to 24 hours from the final whistle.

There will be a number of incidents for him to study. Teams can bring incidents to his attention and it is not known whether South Africa made any formal allegation of biting against Hogg.

A Mako Vunipola tackle on Eben Etzebeth in the first minute and an incident also shared widely on social media which shows Maro Itoje with his knee on the throat of Damian De Allende are both likely to be studied, so too Duhan Van Der Merwe’s late tackle on Pieter-Steph Du Toit that led to the Springbok flanker injuring his shoulder.

The citing commissioner would have to believe an incident was worthy of a red card to bring a charge. He will look at Kolbe’s challenge on Murray. Ben O’Keeffe felt it was worthy of a yellow card but part of his explanation was that Murray had landed on his back, which was incorrect.

Faf De Klerk’s tackle on Murray, when the South Africa scrum half failed to wrap his arms, could also be of interest to the citing officer.

South Africa may consider themselves lucky to have escaped harsher punishment during the game, as both Cheslin Kolbe and Faf de Klerk came under scrutiny.

Kolbe took out Conor Murray in the air, for which he received a yellow card, though the citing commissioner may decide that further punishment is warranted. De Klerk appeared to make a tackle without properly wrapping his arms but was shown no card at the time.

In any case, Warren Gatland said that he wouldn’t get drawn on the debate surrounding match officials.

The Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus poured fuel on the fire this week when he released an extraordinary hour-long video in which he criticised the performance of referee Nic Berry during the Lions’ 22-17 win in the opening Test.

Gatland was asked whether he agreed with the decision to only give Cheslin Kolbe a yellow card for a full-blooded challenge on Conor Murray, but the New Zealander said he wouldn’t comment on refereeing decisions. He also said he hadn’t called South African Television Match Official (TMO) Marius Jonker’s integrity into question prior to the first Test.

“I just thought it was pretty interesting and there’s been enough said by that . . . I won’t be going on social media this week,” he said on Erasmus’s video. “I don’t really want to comment on that because I want to let other people take care of that. So last thing that we need is a war of words and things and being accused of doing certain things.

“It’s amazing to me how the narrative changed with regard to the TMO. I didn’t make one comment leading up to the game last week on the TMO and yet I was accused of questioning his integrity, so that’s the messages that they were giving out. We’ll just keep things to ourselves and go through the proper channels when we deal with the referee and talk to the referee after reviewing the game, and then hopefully get some feedback from him and us give him some feedback as well.

“I’m not going to comment on the referees’ decisions. We’ll have our meeting with the referee this week and see what the assessors come back with in terms of their decision and then . . . find out what it was. It didn’t look great from where I was [the Kolbe tackle] but he decided it was a yellow card.”

Gatland added that he hoped the past week hadn’t set a precedent in terms of dealing with match officials.

Faf de Klerk escaped punishment for what appeared to be a no-arms high tackle on Murray

MIKE HUTCHINGS/REUTERS

“I just hope it doesn’t get to a situation where we end up with things on Twitter and people airing their views in that way and not through the proper channels,” he said. “I found that quite strange that that approach was taken, but it’s definitely not something that I will get involved with, and it’s important that we keep the integrity of the game up as much as we possibly can.”

Robbie Henshaw, who almost scored a crucial try in the first half, which would have put daylight between the two sides, only for Springboks captain Siya Kolisi to prevent him from grounding, said that the Lions would be back stronger next week.

“Yeah, [it’s] very tough,” he said. “It’s Test match footy, I think momentum swings both ways, and fair play to South Africa, they’ve come out in the second half, and I suppose they got a bit of an edge on us in an arm wrestle game.

“I think it’s just the small things that probably didn’t fall our way, those 50-50s, aerial battle in particular — they favoured South Africa today and they probably got a bit of momentum off it. They got their first try in the second half off a 50-50 ball in the 22 and they took their try well, but just those small little swings in momentum, they managed to get their back up. Credit to our lads for staying in it, but we’ve a lot of work to do and we’ve got to look each other in the eye this week and make sure we come back stronger from it.

“It’s all to play for next week, it’s finals rugby and it’s at the top level, so everyone’s going to be up for it and it’s going to be an exciting week.”