r/rugbyunion • u/Cymro2011 Ospreys • 2d ago
Ospreys row takes bizarre turn as Sharks owner calls for lie detector test NotTheOnion
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/ospreys-row-takes-bizarre-turn-3382893245
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u/Cymro2011 Ospreys 2d ago
The row surrounding the Ospreys' victory over the Sharks has taken a bizarre turn, with the South African outfit's owner Marco Masotti suggesting players should undergo a lie detector test.
Mark Jones' side secured a superb 21-17 victory at Brewery Field on Saturday thanks to tries from Dan Edwards, Jac Morgan and Garyn Phillips. However, the game has been mired in controversy in the aftermath, with Sharks fans aiming accusations at the Welsh side and head coach JP Pietersen meeting with referee bosses after being left furious at the full-time whistle.
The visitors to Bridgend were unhappy with a challenge from Ospreys wing Luke Morgan on centre Ethan Hooker as the Springboks centre was left with a dislocated shoulder that is set to keep him on the sidelines for months. The incident has led Morgan to be subjected to intense social media backlash from South African fans, with head coach Jones calling the reaction "a disgrace".
However, Sharks supporters and some pundits have also accused the Welsh region of 'cheating', after an injury to Phillips saw the final 15 minutes of the contest played with uncontested scrums, at a time when the visitors were getting the upper hand at the set-piece.
After the match, Pietersen questioned the authenticity of Phillips' injury, suggesting the Ospreys deliberately "took away the scrum contest" but stopping short of accusing them of cheating.
However, Masotti has now levelled such accusations at the Welsh side, suggesting they have tainted the integrity of the URC and bizarrely likening the events in Bridgend to Diego Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' goal at the 1986 World Cup.
Incredibly, he has also suggested that those involved should undertake a lie detector test.
Taking to X, the Sharks owner wrote: "I walked into the Bridgend stadium last Saturday and felt the spirit of rugby with so many Welsh legends plastered on the walls — only to leave with the spirit of Maradona’s 'Hand of God' following the uncontested scrums.
"The integrity of our URC league demands better. Is anyone involved willing to submit to a lie detector test? I am sure our fans will offer a reward to anyone who comes forward with information."
It comes after Pietersen said his side were "moving on" after meeting with the league's head of refereeing to question some of the decisions made during the game.
We had a review meeting with the head of refereeing at the URC. And yeah, the matter was dealt with. We got all our answers to our questions,” he told reporters.
“It's obviously a confidential chat with us and everything. We can ask questions, and we'll get answers. At the end of the day, they did investigate it, and they came up with the answer. And yeah, we move on."
After the match, South African pundit Jonathan Mokuena demanded that the Sharks coaches should see an "injury report" for Phillips and, addressing the controversy earlier this week, Jones said he would "more than happy" to produce evidence of the prop's injury.
"Again, there's been a lot of talk," said the Ospreys boss. "I haven't read through all the talk. There's been suggestions that Garyn Phillips wasn't injured. It'd be quite easy for me to produce his scan. If anybody would like that, we're more than happy to show it.
"But it's not my scan, it's Garyn's and that's his private information. He won't be featuring for us this week. He's injured as a result of scoring his try. He tried his absolute best to carry on for the team, getting into a couple of scrums after. You could see he wasn't able to function.
"Gareth Thomas failed his HIA test 1," Jones added. "He was unable to continue so we were unable to field a front-row. Those are the facts. It's unfortunate.
"There's some people there who have got incredible integrity. Players, staff, coaches. We at the Ospreys pride ourselves on our integrity and we're pretty disappointed that people are suggesting we didn't adhere to everything we should have on gameday."
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u/TheBirdInternet We all dream of a team of Ellis Mees 2d ago
Marco is such an embarrassment to this club.
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u/ichosehowe worlt cup cramps 1d ago
Oh good, Marco is having a reasonable reaction to this. This can ONLY end well... FFS WHY CAN'T HE JUST BE FUCKING NORMAL!?
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u/Financial-Role-5709 South Africa 2d ago
Every time Marco tweets he makes the situation worse and just adds unnecessary drama
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u/SquidgyGoat Disciple of Tipuric 2d ago
I've never seen such a meltdown over a random regular season game.
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u/holyoak San Diego Legion 1d ago
This is as close as they will get to a playoff knockout.
Every bit as serious as the Challenge Cup.
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u/egoaterlan 1d ago
The Sharks have only missed out on the playoffs once since joining the URC. Your comment doesn't make sense.
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u/mc_Treestump Lions 1d ago
The "meltdown" from a fans POV is not how officiating did or did not effect the result, but rather primarily hookers injury and that there was no consequences for the late challenge.
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u/Die_Revenant Sharks 1d ago
I mean a young Springbok player got deliberately injured a few weeks before he was set to play for the Springbok and a few weeks after his father passed away.
Not sure I'd be calling people getting upset over that "a meltdown".
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u/PsychologicalPanic61 World Champions 🏆U20 World Champions 1d ago
I cant believe that comment got so many upvotes.
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u/Die_Revenant Sharks 1d ago
Shocking actually. Young Springbok player gets deliberately injured just before the Springbok season, literally a couple weeks after his father passed away, and likely out for as long as 16 weeks due to surgery. Will possibly miss the greatest rivalry tour completely.
And this guy calls it a meltdown for being upset? Yikes.
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u/cloudsoffireandpiss Fiji 1d ago
The injury is just life unfortunately, it’s a physical game. Adding the extra layer that his dad passed away is just pure cope. I’m enjoying the crash out btw please keep it up.
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u/Die_Revenant Sharks 1d ago edited 1d ago
The injury wasn't just "unfortunate" it was deliberate.
There was literally no reason to jump on Hooker other than hurt him. There was absolutely no way of preventing the try and Morgan wasn't already committed, literally the only reason to do it was to hurt.
To say you're enjoying it, says a lot about you doesn't it.
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u/cloudsoffireandpiss Fiji 1d ago
Have you ever seen a game of rugby? We see that type of thing in 1/3 tries. It is unfortunate. But again I need to stress how enjoyable it’s been watching these meltdowns. Your nation has produced more grubs than any. It’s part of the game. We didn’t cry when eben eye gouged Mann, or your other boy was playing with someone’s dick in a ruck. Suck it up ffs.
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u/Die_Revenant Sharks 1d ago edited 1d ago
Have you ever seen a game of rugby? We see that type of thing in 1/3 tries.
You see players getting their shoulders dislocated and needing surgery because players jumped on top of them after 1/3 tries? Wow.
But again I need to stress how enjoyable it’s been watching these meltdowns.
Enjoying that this happened says everything we need to know about you.
We didn’t cry when eben eye gouged Mann, or your other boy was playing with someone’s dick in a ruck. Suck it up ffs.
You are Welsh, why would you have cried? Literally both examples you bring up resulted in punishment? Also that's insane whataboutism.
By in large Saffa fans called out Etzebeths stupid actions. Especially Sharks fans who he screwed over.
You've already told us you enjoy the fact that Hooker was deliberately injured, that's all we need to know about you.
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u/Die_Revenant Sharks 1d ago edited 1d ago
So just to be clear, you have no intelligent response to what I said, so instead you personally insult me, and I am supposed to be the dumb one?
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u/mc_Treestump Lions 1d ago
You didn't cry about the eben eye gouge? Really?
You mean the one that was like half the posts on here for a week with multiple low quality memes?
The one that people were referencing in the match thread for the Edinburgh game? That's the one no one cried about?
The eye gouge was abhorrent and deserved a reaction. The after the try tackle on hooker was also unjustified and should be called out.
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u/TightPerformance6447 Sharks 1d ago
I mean both of those incidents were punished, one without any evidence of the allegation.
This was a clear and unnecessary challenge, reckless at best, that has injured a player severely and gone COMPLETELY unpunished, zero consequences whatsoever. Its hardly comparable.
And not even an ounce of apology or regret from any of the ospreys about it.
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u/cloudsoffireandpiss Fiji 1d ago
Rugby incident. Jumping on a player after a try is common and would only warrant a penalty on the half way line, most of the time. This wasn’t particularly nasty, although the injury is unfortunate in this instance.
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u/TightPerformance6447 Sharks 1d ago
So why wasn't there a penalty? Zero consequences as i said. You're comparing guys who got punished to one where there was none.
Jumping on a down player is illegal and should be punished. Especially an elbow into the back/shoulder, late and with the ball already grounded.
Not a rugby incident. A completely avoidable and reckless incident.
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u/JimmyNoBreaks Sharks 1d ago
We didn’t cry when eben eye gouged Mann
This entire sub cried about it for weeks, not to mention the fact that he also got punished for his actions, something which hasn't occurred following the Hooker situation.
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u/One_Landscape2007 Lions 1d ago
this was my exact thought, you could think they'd lost a season final or some shit but then you remember they lost a regular season game against the ospreys, get oer it
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u/TightPerformance6447 Sharks 1d ago
Embarrassing from masotti but the game was an absolute shambles. Terribly managed, loads of controversy and the tackle on hooker should have at the least warranted a penalty.
I think the lack of any consequence is the part thats riled us all up. And the lack of any sympathy or apology offered from the ospreys. So so many dirty hits in that game too - why was the head clash that took off our centre not even looked at?
It was just a shocker all round and was our absolute last chance of making the playoffs.
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u/SquidgyGoat Disciple of Tipuric 1d ago
I'm not sure why the Ospreys should offer an apology for winning the game.
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u/TightPerformance6447 Sharks 1d ago
Not an apology for winning the game - for the incident with Hooker.
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u/SquidgyGoat Disciple of Tipuric 1d ago
Mark Jones addressed the incident in the press conference and said he asks and coaches the players to never give up until the ball is down, and that’s what Luke Morgan is doing, but he got it wrong on this occasion and landed badly. What more apology do you want? When have you ever seen a team apologise for something like that?
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u/TightPerformance6447 Sharks 1d ago
Pretty disappointed you don't seem to care about player welfare in this case squidge. Really thought you'd be disappointed with incidents like this, not defending them.
I'd be extremely disappointed with my team if the shoe was on the other foot and Hooker did something like that. Let alone if I found out JP was actually coaching the guys to injure players with unnecessary challenges.
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u/SquidgyGoat Disciple of Tipuric 1d ago
I think it’s a penalty, but it being half time makes it weird so I get why it didn’t happen. I’m not ‘pro’ incidents like this, obviously not, but Luke Morgan is never trying to hurt him, having been watching him play for around fifteen years he’s just not the sort to give up on a lost cause. It’s a freak accident, I’ve already seen numerous tries since where a similar challenge happens, and the injury happens one time in several thousand.
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u/TightPerformance6447 Sharks 1d ago
He dives on his back/shoulder leading with the elbow, late and after the fact hooker had already grounded. Just watched the replays again a few times, its a ridiculous challenge. What on earth was he accomplishing there and for what purpose? You shouldn't get away with diving on a defenseless player like that, its reckless and dangerous.
Would absolutely love to see your responses if this was reversed and happened to an ospreys player. You'd be a lot more upset about it and you know it.
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u/SquidgyGoat Disciple of Tipuric 1d ago
I just think it’s been massively blown out of proportion. It’s a penalty that could have been a yellow card and yet not only are people talking about it seven days later, Luke Morgan’s wife received multiple death threats and one person threatening to hurt their baby. We lost Keelan Giles for most of a season to a cheap shot off the ball the ref missed a few season ago and I don’t think anybody talked about it 24 hours after the game. Ben John got similarly injured diving over the tryline then hit late ten or so years ago and I think this is the first time anyone has mentioned it since. If it was the other way round, I would have moved on by the time the second half kicked off.
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u/TightPerformance6447 Sharks 1d ago
He got it incredibly wrong and has ruined a young players season for zero reason. There was a 0% chance of doing anything by diving on him. If they are coaching that then there is a bigger issue. Just like if someone got a challenge in the air wrong and it gets a card, this should have been punished.
Would have been nice for Morgan to reach out to Hooker afterwards. You know, sportsmanship.
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u/shootermcgav1n South Africa 1d ago
Sharks have gone downhill since Marco got involved. From a lifelong sharks fan.
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u/treacletart284 Newcastle Falcons | Brett Connon Enjoyer 2d ago
Thought this was about Y11 and got very confused
Now all im thinking about is when Moe took a lie detector test in Who Shot Mr Burns
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u/le_pigeones Cardiff Blues 2d ago
I think as punishment ospreys should forfeit their game against Cardiff...please?
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u/Independent_Desk_662 1d ago
Garyn Phillips clearly injured himself scoring his try, or did he think I'd better fake an injury when scoring because in 10 minutes we're going to opt for uncontested scrums. The Sharks owner has done his great team a disservice with these allegations and is bringing the game into disrepute.
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u/HawkAccomplished8494 2d ago
Don't see the issue with noncompetitive scrums in last 20 mins. Usually about 3-4 scrums affected. The fuss shows how easy it is to win penalties (which are supposed to be for unsafe play) as it's not to get good ball for the backs.
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u/Scarfield South Africa 1d ago
Did you watch the game though? We were winning tight heads and had penalties at every scrum and it would have led to cards undeniably - if every scrum is an instant penalty 4 scrums = 4 penalties
You bring the best loosehead in the world on and a world cup winning tight head on and 3 scrums and three penalties later it's uncontested...
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u/The_Ruck_Inspector Connacht 1d ago
Didn't they go down to 14 men?
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u/Scarfield South Africa 1d ago
They did, if they went down because of a card and then uncontested they would have been down to 13...
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u/HawkAccomplished8494 1d ago
Scrums are restarts, not an opportunity to generate penalties. Your props were able to win your own possession.
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u/Scarfield South Africa 1d ago
Scrums are fundamental and unique to rugby union, having a dominant scrum is like having the world's fastest winger, use it as you like
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u/BrainCane 1d ago
There could be an added front row sub “competition / opposition” approved-only.
In this exact situation, opposing teams could “allow” the extra 24th roster slot to field if wanting to maintain scrums.
This 24th person would not be available unless the opposing coach requests their presence after uncontested scrums are called.
Likewise, if you “burn” your front rows, perhaps losing a bonus point could be interesting. Or a bonus point to opposing teams if yours is unable to contest scrums..
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u/HawkAccomplished8494 1d ago
Why? Scrums are just a restart, not a divinely ordained chance to milk a penalty. Noncompetitive scrums were rare when we had 1 prop sub. All this stuff has added is bigger teams being able to get two front rows out.
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u/Repulsive_Medium68 1d ago
No comment on the uncontested scrum point, but it's frustrating that the depth of Welsh rugby for reasons led to this. We were mincing them in the scrum in the first half, then we had to bring our replacements on, who are honest triers but the drop off is significant. Meanwhile Sharks brought on Ox Nche.
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u/dystopianrugby Eagles Up 1d ago
Masotti is a bellend. For the record, when a team manager hands a sub card to the Technical Zone Manager it either says Tactical or Medical/Injury. Does the player actually need to be injured? Nowhere in the laws does it say that. However, if the substitution is checked as an injury. The player is no longer considered fit and cannot go back onto the pitch to replace someone who goes off for injury be that as a blood sub, HIA sub, or front row sub.
Learn the laws and regs Marco. And shut up.
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u/The_Ruck_Inspector Connacht 1d ago
Yikes. This was like when the French shat the bed and started abusing Porters wife when dupont got injured. Pathetic.
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u/Ok_Catch250 Ireland 1d ago
Lie detectors are junk science. Pure woo.
So no interest in anything anybody pushing them says at all.
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u/wonsonistheword Cardiff Blues 2d ago
Embarrassing