Tbh as a neutral i thought the ref let a lot go for both sides to let the game flow. France lost the game on the chased down kick and slicing that kick towards end. Two huge errors.

Hello Bokkes, as a french fan I can only admire your determination during this game. Congratulations your victory is deserved and not stolen! The level between the two teams was very balanced, it was an awesome game of rugby. Probably the best ive seen. I think there are a lot of questionnable decisions made by the referee but I want to stay worthy in the defeat. May the better team win the world cup, enjoy the rest of the competition in our beloved country and let's all appreciate a little bit more these amazing final phases!

Heck! And here I was complaining that the ref was against the South African team..hmmm

Let’s talk about DuPont getting 30 seconds to use it every single ruck.

🤣🤣The ref killed both teams! The boks were even robbed more than the french!🤣

Nobody speaks about Kolbe? No video? The rules are clear…Ramos didn’t move forward

Go Springboks Go South Africa ........ Huge Fan from India ......

To be honest referrer butched us all, if boks were the ones that lost we would be saying the same thing. France played fantastic it was everyone game. SA prevailed at the end, go Boke🇿🇦🏆❤

Very strange how Eben was given a yellow card for the head collision, but they did nothing when Mapimpi suffered a fractured cheek bone from a head-to-head collision.

I can understand why the French are protesting, but it’s poor refereeing all the way through, it’s just not there turn today same for Ireland

As a neutral and rugby fan from San Diego, both Ireland / NZ and France / SA , were the best rugby spectacles played in decades . I thought referees in both games were great. Pity 2 teams had to loose. Could have gone either way. But don’t blame the referees for a defeat. Not deserved and takes away from the overall fantastic games. Congrats to all 4 teams . Gladiator games !!!🎉

How much you want to bet that none of these French players will get penalized for criticizing the referee. When Rassie did it he got in big trouble

The only person more upset with France loosing was the ref. As hard as the ref tried to get France to win, the harder the Springboks had to play.

Let's be honest. The semifinals have already been played. The next two games are just a training before the final match everyone expected.

How often did Dupont position himself behind the ruck without the referee calling "use it," yet every time Faf looked at the ball, he signaled the need to quicken the pace? This individual, who is 26 years old, appears to believe that his reputation as the best player in the world gives him the authority to dictate proceedings. His bitterness stems from a loss, and he must come to terms with the reality that he can't single-handedly carry his team every year. Everyone needs to step up; the Springboks played as a cohesive unit, while France did not.

Colby interception of the French's 2 points kick was not right as he did it ,leaving his line way to soon....it should have been replayed..!!

As a Wales fan, I thought the ref and supporting staff had a blinder

I love how the Springboks react to situations like these. They're always stoic and say "all we can do is play rugby"

Is the World Rugby Organisation also going jam DuPont, like they did with Rassie?

The springboks got yellow carded and the french still couldn't get it done.

If the ref had blown every infringement 100% to the letter of the law then the Boks would have won by more. He let a huge amount of decisions go to the advantage of the French. He was indecisive at scrum time when at least 4 penalties within easy kicking distance were not awarded and made many mistakes like when the ball hit him, Faf passing into a French player, head contact by French 15 on Bok 7, French coming in from the side and playing the ball on the ground etc etc... French are complaining about one or two decisions - lmfao. It was a great match and sour grapes will not change the result.

Which decisions? I'm South African so I might be biased, but that game was tight and 1 yellow card against South Africa.

As a South African bloke. Ill say that he is right. The ref was inconsistent in terms of decision making. It didnt help both sides. But nonetheless it was a fair result. Both teams performed so well. I take my hat off to the french. Your time will come. Allez

hah every team makes fun of sa complaining about the ref until they feel it happened to them

Such a shame to criticise the referee for a narrow defeat. Accept the defeat and wonderful game with good grace

I don't think a single Springboks supporter didn't, just like me, see our team going down to this most incredible onslaught by arguably one of the best and most on form teams I have ever seen us play against. From the first second France piled on the pressure and intensity and the Springbok's slow poison' didn't seem to take at all. It felt like we were at any moment going to go down from this immense onslaught. I still don't quite know how the Bokke managed to stay together and successfully play catch-up, but there seemed to be a strange calmness about their act that I definitely wasn't feeling. This was a massive game and it will keep resonating with me for ages to come, but for the drop of bitter gall in our sweet cup of victory, France and SA should not have ended up in the same pool. Someone deserving was always going to have to fall out in the quarters while other pools had much easier runs. Obviously I'm not maligning any of the other teams efforts as they all had their own challenges to overcome and both England and Argentina overcame immense odds to make their achievements. I firmly believe that every player chosen for this grand tournament has earned his place in the sun and his opportunity to shine. However I can't help but feel that whomever worked out the permutations of the pools must have known what they were doing, and it was intended that an undeserving team should have to fall out. Sadly this was France. The dice could easily have fallen differently and we would have been crying today. In my book France should also have gone through to the semis, they definitely deserved to.

Next time we might as well leave the Anglo-Saxons to themselves and things will go faster... You're tired of being systematically robbed by the refereeing at each World Cup ( 1995,2007,2011 ). Courage blues 💪🇨🇵🐓

The problem with the French is that they lost and they blame the referee for it. One must understand their grief. „Rouspeter” is always at the rendez-vous when they are on the loosing side. Too bad !

I thought the ref was excellent tbh. Very clear with his communication, clear with his decisions, no bias, made sure everyone knew what he expected. Maybe too many resets with regards to set scrums, but he wanted them to be right. Just France being sore losers. While I'm here, what about every France fan booing when Pollard was taking a penalty kick? What happened to being silent for every kick at goal? No dacorum or respect for other teams.

Some times decisions fall on your side and Some times they dont... I remember times when the boks were kicked out of world cups because of similar circumstances. I will say though when one of the best kickers in the world is charged down by one of the shortest players on the field you cant say you lost by 1 point because of the reff.

The ref was nuts. He couldn’t get eny help from the TMO making the wrong decision and it’s been played on the big screen. The ref team should go under review in fairness some really bad calls

I like SA but as a neutral ref had a shocker. At least 3 pens in final phase....but SA were victims of dreadful referring the against Ireland..so swings and roundabouts

I’d hate to be a ref nowadays, especially in a World Cup. I seem to remember everyone around the world taking the high road and criticising rassie when he highlighted inconsistent referee decisions. Now the shoe is on the other foot and that’s all everyone focuses on.

We can argue and complain about refs until the cows come. But the reality is both teams must make use of every opportunity to shut down the other side. Kolbe didn't leave it to chance and got the charge down that if ramos didn't take so much time could have won the game for France. That conversion was in their hands and no one else's.

What has surprised me is how many forward passes have been ignored.

ref was actually pretty good , which hasnt been said a lot this world cup

Actually the ref was trying so hard to give this game to france

"England to avenge their defeat in 2019" Um...no😂😂😂

The ref was superb , France lost by 1 point in probably the best game seen for years 👏

Let's keep rugby clean. Don't start blaming the ref when you loose. "This is not soccer. Watch it." Nigel Owens

Sour grapes. The ref let the game flow and was lenient to both sides.

Sore loser a proper professional is always graceful in defeat. They never try to find excuses and blame. Swallow it and accept results don’t always go the way we want. Man up and forward we go💪🏿💪🏿 good luck springboks

DUPONT IS RIGHT the ref had bad calls on the bokkes and yet we won games game and we won that game

Problem with having a baby as a captain..lack of class

No Dupont. This was a tough game and anyone could have won. Do NOT blame the ref. Just remember. France had 10 min to get ahead playing against 14 Boks. In that period, you only scored the penalty awarded at time of yellow card against Boks. Do not blame the ref that France could not score against 15 for the rest of the 70mins. Unfortunately, only 1 team can win, and it was not France. Just accept you gave your best and contributed to a superb weekend of excellent rugby.

France were great but I have never seen a team defend so sleekly like the Boks did. They were being hit with relentless attack after attack, including blistering well rehearsed plays, yet the Boks looked so comfortable playing out deep in their own half, making trying saving tackles, turning the ball over and then calmly setting up clearance kicks. I’m a neutral, but it was ridiculous to watch a team so calmly deal with all that. And then in attack France had no answer for SA wingers’ pace or Etzebeth’s brute force. Fully deserved the win. France had some dodgy calls go their way against New Zealand, not to mention lucky bounces of the ball, so these things come and go, they can only blame themselves about that blocked conversion and other, admittedly very few, handling errors.

Not a good look for the captain to blame ref after a loss. I thought Dupont was classier than this, no humility. Referee did a great job.

What team got a yellow card? DuPont should have played and lead his team better. France mainly lost because of kicking mistakes, the scrum and they got tired at the end. DuPont should have led the attack better, they couldn’t score or put pressure on at the end.

The yellow card should have been red, you don't hit the head!

Two of his mistakes cost the French two tries... Weak leaders blame others, especially when their mistakes cost their team.

Everyone saying SA is sour towards refs, no evry top team that loses does the same and get away with it???

Good luck to England. I do not really expect them to beat SA, but all credit to the players and coaching staff for making the most of their chances. Yes they had a favourable draw, but after a difficult build up it would be unjust not recognise how well they have done.

We got totally smashed by the referee… look at the highlights and judge for yourself… honestly, France, even with some little mistakes should have won the game.

as a neutral i want to say that as long as 99% of referees are Anglo-Saxon, rugby will be biased....it's the only sport in which we can see this....Would the Anglo-Saxons accept that 99% of the referees are French-speaking? from Quebec, belguim, Swiss or whatever...I do not think so. And I'm not blaming anyone, it's simply human...we always get closer to those with whom we identify the most. humm...On the other hand, you should present Kolbe at the Olympic Games....by doing the calculation frame by frame, he is faster than Hussein Bolt! ....outstanding!

Classless. This isn’t how true greats act. You play the game. You have some dignity.

I don’t want to sound bitter and moan about the ref, but I’m going to anyway

When France were leading at halftime and playing against 14 men South Africa they let the game slip, France did not score any points when South Africa were a man down. Don't blame the referee for your own shortcomings,

I feel that we are more than legit to cry when a ref refuses to use the video, he made some mistakes that arguably costed us the game. That being said well played to both team, great match

DuPont please what a message sending to the children? France loss for referee’s mistakes? Referee’s mistakes are part of the game , you know that and you didn’t enough, was your responsibility. Please respect South Africa, respect Rugby, respect Rugby’s fans.

What a disaster for RWC to have Ireland-AB and France-SA as quarterfinal matches, these should have been semi-final matches at least. Time to fix the pool draw timing!

From a french fan, the ref was not so bad. The interception of etzebeth, from a frencv is going forward but for south african is going backward. I have to admit that 98% of referees whistle this but we were unlucky yesterday. There could had penalties for France but for sa too. The major error was to allowed the Kolbe stop on Ramos because he clearly started before. It was 2 points. We dont know if he would have succeed but 2 points will have done the difference. Anyway it's a deception but man there are lot of things most important than rugby world cup in the world. Everybody relax. Congratulatiosn Sa, amazing team and good luck

That quote shows how media twists the full story to sensationalize topics. I think the coach and the captain were very reasonable in their post-match interview considering they just lost a MASSIVE game.

Etzebeth should have been yellow carded for the deliberate knock on and the winning penalty was clearly a mistake. France are correct in feeling aggrieved

The ref let alot go for both sides. Both sides got 50/50 calls. France lost due to there own errors. To many errors from them cost them the game. Dw france ab's will become 4x champion's

Ben O'Keefe is not up to standard and I really do not understand World Rugby - his favourite phrase is "I did not see that".

Refereeing has been inconsistent throughout the tournament, not against France. And I must say, if anything I felt some referees were slightly swayed towards northern hemisphere countries if anything

Others will be blaming the ref this coming weekend

The referee was definitely on the French-team side, if you look at the last 5 minutes where the France pulled down the scrum 2 times, it was suppose to be a penalty kick for SA which would have resulted in SA winning them with more points instead of one. There is many more instances where the referee was definitely on team France and not SA. For example the one where the one player from France was off-side and in the way off play, that resulted in Faf de Klerk accidentally bumping the ball on the off-side player- the ref definitely made a very unfair call there because had it not been for that maybe SA would have scored another try because they were so close. But needless to say that was one nail biting game, I am so sad that this was not the finals. France was an amazing team in my honest opinion at times they were better than SA, they had way more possessions of the ball and once they have the ball they are so quick on their feet and their execution is flawless when they try. But in the end SA was the better team and definitely gave it their all and I am looking forward to the finals where it’s hopefully SA against New Zealand. It’s just sad that the France and Ireland is the underdogs of this worldcup, they both deserve to be placed higher. Both teams where excellent!

"the referee always helps the strongest team" Sun Tsu

What about the calls against the Boks????????

As a French , I’m disagree with him . SA won fair and square , congratulations to them

As a French, I do agree the ref made a couple of very dubious decisions (not seeing Etzebebeth's knock-on leading to a SA try in the following phase and being okay with Kolbe's block on Ramos' transformation despite his initial position) but on the whole, even though we dominated the game we were not clinical enough. SA took advantage of every crumb we gave them, we made too many mistakes to win at this level and most of our guys on the bench, I'm sorry to say, weren't good enough. It was a heartbreaking game because les bleus gave it their all and then some, but SA didn't steal anything. So good luck for the next game and please, kick the brits out for us, they're getting a little too cocky ;)

We are not too happy with the ref against new zealand either.😢 But what can you do? The draw has favoured some teams, but not the teams that were meant to be favoured.

Max verstappen plays rugby now😂

Favoured? Brah, the referee literally was in the way of South African play, gave Baile a try when he didn't even cross the line, ignored all the French obstructions especially in the last 15 minutes and constantly blew "knock backward" as if they were knock-ons. Dupont, you were unlucky and that's basically it. Sorry it sucks but it isn't true.

The referee was good & unbiased, sour grapes by the french is nothing knew!

It must be very hard to ref these games. Of course refs make mistakes, and each side sees only the calls that go against them.

Antoine Dupont : "I don't want to sound bitter , moaning about the refereeing, but........" South Africans: "Then be quiet my guy and sit down" 😅😂

The English referee was a disgrace in the Ireland match also. He kept giving penalties against Ireland even when they were pushing NZ in the scrum

England have had a very easy ride to the semis…😊

The ref made 50/50 calls either way...but in the end, the game could have gone either way too. What an amazing game.

By criticising the referee Dupont lowered himself from hero to sore loser. Not a good look at all.

The high ball was France's undoing. They could not get to grips with the up and under from the Boks.

Well done to England, but they really need to get the head down, stay focused and hope for the best. I think the media is starting to get too excited with their chances, saying they are coming from a big losing streak, not to take anything away from them but I highly doubt they would have made it out of Pools A or B.

I find it ironic French Pundits not addressing most of if not every other unfair calls in any other games especially by Northern hemisphere referees against Southern hemisphere teams

sooooo some are allowed to critice the ref but others are called names if they do the same lol

Pathetic. You would never see Siya Kolisi say this about a ref in a conference. Ref messed things both sides, always do. They are not perfect. South africans could show you things they went against them.

Back in 2007 when France beat the ABs a lot of things went their way, so swings and roundabouts

If it's a close game it can fall in the hands of the refs. So if you can't handle that, don't let it be a close game. I'm also pretty sure the Boks overcame their own challenges like playing the home side and what not. So why can't Dupont overcome a couple of ref decisions?

Ok Antoine, let's go there and discuss how France were lucky. 1) Springboks were camped on their 5m line, Cameron Woki is off his feet competing, and his hands were first placed on the ground before attacking the ball. Should've been a straight penalty. France win a penalty a few phases later which leads to Cyril Baille's 2nd try. Kwagga Smith won a penalty illegally in the 68th minute in the same way as Cameron Woki, and the referee never picked this up. (Woki also got away with it). So fair is fair 2) With 76 minutes on the clock Faf de Klerk passes the ball against an offside French player, instead of it being a penalty (as in literally all other games), France are miraculously awarded a scrum. Nowhere in the law book is this a rule!! Boks were on fire at this stage and should've added 3 more points minimum 3) French supporters keep bitching about Etzebeth's deliberate knock on in the 5th min, which would've lead to a try. Firstly, the ball went backwards, therefore its not a knock-on, so therefore no penalty. Yes its unsportsmanlike, but its not illegal within the laws. The same goes for Kurt-Lee Arendse's "tap back" in the 3rd minute when he knocked the ball away from Bialle-Biarry. 4) Let's stop dissecting the game, because i hate doing this. What's done is done. A team which takes their opportunities will always win. The Springboks were simply smarter than the French.

what a sore loser, they can't take a loss on the chin. Kolisi spoke like a true champion and sets an example.

Go and have a moan with Sexton mate.

He must just take the defeat with grace and learn from it . He must calm down . We won fair and square 🇿🇦🔥

I don't want to criticise the French team but I am not sure they were up for the challenge, looked absolutely clueless in the last 5 minutes

It was a knock on by Etzebeth on a try winning pass (no, it did not go backwards), Kolbe was off his line early when charging down the kick, first time in the tournament that head on head is not red, etc etc. It's only a game but Dupont has a point. In a game of fine margins, the ref does make the difference. It's just that there were a few too many "strange" decisions.

First of all I was suprised how physical the frenchfowards were.. I totally agree with Dupont.A couple of breakdowns between 40th and 60th minute SA blatantly slowed ball down illegally. It happened at least 3 times without been penalised.Another instance Vermeulen diving over ruck and all this happened when french fowards had serious momentum.OKeefe turned a blind eye. If he rightfully penalised SA during that period, the lead would' ve grown,but because french could not score they made subs that could not bring the same physicallity the starting players brought to the game. Only then SA start domanating. Yes Okeefe also could have penalised the french player at an offside position when Faff passed the ball. I also dont agree Eben's knock down was a yellow because he knocked it backwards. But i do believe Okeefe made critical mistakes that did not favour the french. But all of this drama is part of the game. Good luck to SA.

Accept defeat. There were calls against us too. Epic game regardless

Shock horror losing team critizises ref hard job everyone is trying there best heart broken irish fan enjoy the sport

Anglophone world enjoying their xenophobic moment.

Ref was ok. TMO refused to do his job, even when the stadium TV director did it for him