26-09-2007, 02:23 AM
It seems that if we so much as sneeze in a loose scrum we get a card," said captain John Smit, hinting at the growing sentiment among the Boks that officialdom have it in for them.
The Boks believe that it started with the heavy-handed four-match ban given to Schalk Burger for a dangerous tackle on the Samoan scrumhalf (the suspension was later reduced to two matches). Young Steyn was not nearly as diplomatic as his captain when asked to comment on his sin-binning.
"Ek was die m**r in (I was furious)," the 20-year-old said. "I did nothing more than try to break up a scrap and the ref (after consulting the touch judge) told me I had thrown a punch, and the Tongan wing (Josesh Vaka) accused me of biting!" Steyn was indeed innocent.
He had seen Bakkies Botha wrestling on the ground and had run over from his wing to play peacemaker, only to be attacked by Vaka (who Steyn will feel deserves a vulgar pronunciation of his surname)!
Video footage indeed shows this to be a case of defamation of character. The case for or against Habana, who was pinned for the professional foul of "not rolling away", is not that clear. "I did not really have a chance to roll away but I am not going to complain. You have to go with these things," he said.
But while the Boks were not happy with the yellow cards, they were also honest about their performance and the youngest player on the field, Steyn, summed it up aptly. "We played very badly," he said bluntly.
"We are not as good as we think we are and have been brought down to earth with a bump."
The Boks believe that it started with the heavy-handed four-match ban given to Schalk Burger for a dangerous tackle on the Samoan scrumhalf (the suspension was later reduced to two matches). Young Steyn was not nearly as diplomatic as his captain when asked to comment on his sin-binning.
"Ek was die m**r in (I was furious)," the 20-year-old said. "I did nothing more than try to break up a scrap and the ref (after consulting the touch judge) told me I had thrown a punch, and the Tongan wing (Josesh Vaka) accused me of biting!" Steyn was indeed innocent.
He had seen Bakkies Botha wrestling on the ground and had run over from his wing to play peacemaker, only to be attacked by Vaka (who Steyn will feel deserves a vulgar pronunciation of his surname)!
Video footage indeed shows this to be a case of defamation of character. The case for or against Habana, who was pinned for the professional foul of "not rolling away", is not that clear. "I did not really have a chance to roll away but I am not going to complain. You have to go with these things," he said.
But while the Boks were not happy with the yellow cards, they were also honest about their performance and the youngest player on the field, Steyn, summed it up aptly. "We played very badly," he said bluntly.
"We are not as good as we think we are and have been brought down to earth with a bump."