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 Yugoslavia Serbian clubs switch to rugby union to unite Yugoslavia under one form of rugby football in 1964. Yugoslav rugby did not enjoy high reputation. For example, in 1988, an anonymous French rugby official joked that "one of the FIRA nightmares... is to have playing refereed by a Soviet." Yugoslavia was not invited to the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, and did not qualify for the second in 1991. The former All Black scrum half Chris Laidlaw, writing at the end of the 1970s, saw rugby as a positive force in east-west relations at the time: Yugoslavia affiliated to the