Former Springboks captain Jean de Villiers is worried rugby is \u201cbecoming like football\u201d with the simulation that is creeping into the game.<\/b><\/p>\n
De Villiers\u2019 comments were prompted by fellow South African Schalk Burger, who discussed the recent British and Irish Lions series, and specifically the Jac Morgan incident.<\/p>\n
Morgan cleared out Carlo Tizzano at the end of the second Test and the Wallabies<\/a> flanker immediately clutched his head.<\/p>\n There may have been contact with the top of the back and neck area, but it was a rather dramatic fall and Tizzano was criticised for his actions afterwards.<\/p>\n He is not the first to do that in the sport, however, with \u2018diving\u2019 becoming more and more common over recent years.<\/p>\n France international forced to apologise<\/p>\n France international Nolann Le Garrec was slammed<\/a> in April this year for going down holding his face following an accidental collision with Perpignan prop Bruce Devaux, for which he apologised afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201cGamesmanship is getting into it. Tizzano did do that to trigger the television match official, which he did,\u201d Burger said on the Boks Unpacked podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also the way we\u2019ve been conditioned through what has been now the norm of yellow cards and red cards, and what we\u2019ve seen over the last five years of nonsense, of a rugby incident being seen as foul play.<\/p>\n \u201cJac Morgan summed it up perfectly in his post-match interview where he said the clean felt good until he saw it on television and then all of a sudden, with the crowd, it sort of flips and looks bad.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got the Aussie feed and the narrative driven there is it\u2019s a penalty and a yellow card.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s two players getting to the breakdown at the same time and you can actually see him wrapping with his left arm and hitting at the top of the shoulder \u2013 it\u2019s the perfect clean.\u201d<\/p>\n Rassie Erasmus reckons Springboks \u2018outsmarted ourselves\u2019 in perfect \u2018storm\u2019 as changes give \u2018clear indication\u2019 of new approach<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Jean de Villiers\u2019 theory<\/p>\n De Villiers then chimed in, offering a theory as to why simulation has crept into the sport.<\/p>\n