History of the South Africa national rugby union team on to criticise New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence for "one-sided" refereeing, claiming that Australian openside David Pocock was allowed to "reduce the breakdown to a farce". Lawrence was dropped from the nine-man elite panel in 2012. Following the World Cup exit, several stalwarts of the 2007 World Cup-winning side and the 2011 squad went on to announce retirements or moves abroad. This included captain John Smit, influential lock pairing Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha, and scrum-half Fourie du Preez. History of the South Africa national rugby union team The History of the South Africa national rugby union team dates back
Rugby union in the Soviet Union ten times as many coaches and referees as it had. He admitted that a more holistic approach was needed: A running joke in French rugby circles ran that FIRA's nightmare was to have " playing refereed by a Soviet." Some members of the were also veterans at this point - for example, Igor Mironov, Roman Khairulin and Alexander Tikonov had all been playing at international level for over a decade. Igor Frantsusov, the scrum-half had been playing for slightly less time, but was still a veteran in rugby terms. The collapse of the Soviet Union was a severe blow to