'NOT FAIR' HOW BOKS ARE TREATED

SPRINGBOK assistant coach Mzwandile Stick came out firing, accusing World Rugby officials of “unfair treatment” after seeing locks Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert get red carded in back-to-back Test matches respectively.

For his dangerous tackle in the 32-17 win against France, De Jager has been suspended for four weeks, with Stick revealing that Mostert, sent off early in the 32-14 win against Italy, is also expected to cop a lang suspension.

Defending the rulings against De Jager and Moster, Stick told a press conference ahead of Saturday's Test match against Ireland in Dublin: "As a team, we are just disappointed with how things are flowing at the moment. We are losing players every week.

"We are disappointed with the way things are being handled at the moment. If you look at the actions of Franco and Lood the previous week, they did everything by the book.

"With Franco, it was probably just that there was contact to the shoulder, but it moved to the head. I don’t understand how it becomes a permanent red card. For us as coaches, we have to work hard because we are working with these big men."

Not mincing his words and claiming the Boks are being targeted, Stick wysed: "We feel for the referee because we understood the communication that was happening between him and his team outside of him. He has to respect the communication from his team. There were about 21 decisions that were supposed to be made in the first half; 20 of them went against us.

"If you are going to say that Franco deserved a red card, then there were more than five other reds that should have happened. And several more yellow cards, too.

"I don’t want to say things and then also get banned like coach Rassie Erasmus in the past. But looking at the France v Fiji game and the cleanouts there... the same with the Ireland-Australia situations, which were even worse than what our guys have been suspended for.

"They are suspended, but other players will play again this week. Surely somewhere, somehow this is not fair. I don’t think we deserve this as a team.

"Are we treated fairly?

"I don’t think so."