Erasmus unconcerned about Kriel’s tackle on Dempsey in Marseille

Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus is not losing any sleep over the possibility of centre Jesse Kriel being cited for a tackle on Scotland No 8 Jack Dempsey during their World Cup clash in Marseille on Sunday.

In the opening minutes of Boks’ encounter against Scotland, where the South Africans won 18-3, Kriel made a rush tackle on Dempsey and the players’ heads collided.

There have been suggestions in some quarters Kriel should have been carded for the incident.

Tackles involving the head have been punished by officials in the opening weekend of the World Cup in France, with England’s Tom Curry receiving a red card based on the review by the TMO for his challenge on Argentina’s Juan Mallia, while Chilean captain Martin Sirgen got a yellow for clashing with Japan’s Kotaro Matsushima.

‘Comfortable’

While there have been calls for Kriel to be cited, Erasmus is confident it won’t reach that stage, the director of rugby arguing that Kriel hit the ball first in the tackle and then the momentum took him up to the head.

“We are really comfortable; there hasn’t been a citing (and) I’m pretty sure there won’t be a citing,” Erasmus told the media.

“If it isn’t direct head contact … and it wasn’t, it was tackled on the ball and then he moved up after tackling on the ball. I’ve seen a few stills where people just (show) after direct contact to the ball.

“If you took it a millisecond or a second or two back, you’ll see that he clearly tackled on the ball. So we’re very happy with how it was refereed.

“Obviously there’s some time to do citings still but I’ll be very surprised for the indirect contact … with first contact on the ball … that there will be anything from that,” he said.

Centre options

A citing for Kriel could result in him being banned for a few games, something that would result in the Boks being without a recognised outside centre for a couple of games. Bok first choice outside centre Lukhanyo Am isn’t at the World Cup because of an injury, which complicates the No 13 position.

Canan Moodie is more than capable of covering the position, as he showed in the Test against the All Blacks at Twickenham just a few weeks ago, while No 12s Damian de Allende and Andre Esterhuizen can also do duty at 13.

The Boks return to action on Sunday when they take on Romania in their second game of Pool B.