The former All Blacks Out-half Stephen Donald has suggested that South Africa threw their game against Ireland to face France rather than Ireland..
Speaking on New Zealandās SENZ radio;
āDeep down, would you ever put it past the South Africans to go, āDo we want the All Blacks in a quarter-final? I think we take this route,āā Donald said.
āIt was a brutal old thing, wasnāt it? It was everything youād hope for in a gameā¦ it couldāve been the final, it was that sort of intensity and that sort of quality.ā
The World Cup winner has come in for a bit of a backlash for this comment..
So as South Africa were edging to the Irish line in the dying seconds to score they wanted to lose? When they knocked on the ball at least twice on the try line they wanted to lose? When they chose points over going for the line they wanted to lose? Iām embarrassed for you
Itās possible. They just played weirdly. Forwards didnāt even make a real effort. Only Willemse arrived for the game that day Ā But itās ok. We soldier on. I think our backline players are going to be key in winning against Tonga.I think Stephen Donald is being disrespectful to Ireland. That was a tough match and either team could have won, but Ireland were the better team on the day.