Owens cops flack from Schwalger

Not seeing eye to eye: Mahonri Schwalger and Nigel Owens

Samoa captain Mahonri Schwalger was left fuming at Nigel Owens after he felt calls went ‘one way’ against the Boks.

Schwalger looked visibly upset and angry after their loss at North Harbour Stadium, a negative he felt was marred by the Welsh official’s showing.

“I’m pretty disappointed but I’m proud of the boys,” he said after the entertaining 13-5 fixture.

“I thought the referee as pretty hard on us with a few calls on the field that, if they had gone our way, we probably would have put more points on the South Africans. A lot of the time they were slowing our ball down and for me he’s got to be fair on us as well. I felt like it was one way but at the end of the day we can’t change it, it’s done.”

The Islanders were reduced to fourteen men in Albany when full-back Paul Williams was shown a red-card following an off-the-ball incident involving Heinrich Brussow.

And hooker Schwalger was again disappointed with the decision, which he felt was simulation on the part of the Springbok flanker.

“The sending off was a little bit of acting and there was nothing in that, but the referee decided to give him a red card and that was harsh,” he added before explaining how they came into the Pool D game with a mindset to attack the reigning champions.

“This was our only chance of getting into a quarter-final. Of course we had a short turnaround as well but the boys gave it all they had out there,” concluded Schwalger.

By Adam Kyriacou at North Harbour Stadium

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