October 24, 2011. According to a report today in Sport24, the French public have laid the blame at referee (former Maritzburg College schoolboy) Craig Joubert’s doorstep, for their narrow 8-7 defeat to the All Blacks on Sunday.
Shortly after Joubert had brought the curtain down on the tournament, a few French supporters decided to “alter” his French Wikipedia page, Sport24 reported.
According to Die Volksblad, French tabloid, lescandaleumag, who tweeted the occurrence, some two hours after the match had ended in which the altered Wikipedia insert repeatedly makes reference to Joubert as a “cheat”.
“(Sic) He did not see the mistakes (from the All Blacks). He was undoubtedly single-eyed,” read one of the sections on the page and ended with “VOLEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR” (which means ‘thief’ in French).
The French voiced their disgust, much as outraged South Africans laid blame at the door of Kiwi ref Bryce Lawrence after the Boks’ exit at the hands of Australia.
Twitter is abuzz with comments, many of them derogatory about Joubert, and his performance in the final, where the French gave the All Blacks a fierce battle but were unable to break through resolute Kiwi defence in the final minutes.
French coach Marc Lievremont had earlier refused to blame the referee for his team’s defeat and praised the All Blacks.
2 Comments
I don’t think he had a good performance either way!
Think the French are a bit full of it to blame the ref. ABs deserved their win, deserved to win the tournament.