Nigel Owens gives his verdict on Rees-Zammit's yellow card

Former test referee Nigel Owens believes Louis Rees-Zammit was very hard done by to be penalised and yellow carded in Wales’ last-gasp defeat to South Africa.

Louis Rees-Zammit scored two tries in the first half to give Wales a commanding lead in the first half but he went from hero to zero as his desperate attempt to stop a South Africa try.

He would join Alun Wyn Jones on the sidelines as referee Nika Amashukeli deemed that Rees-Zammit did not release Le Roux in the tackle before attempting to compete for the ball and called a penalty advantage to South Africa, before showing the Welshman a yellow card when the play came to an end.

“Louis Rees-Zammit yellow card – harsh or not? Not as a Welshman, but as a referee or probably as an ex-referee, yes for me, a bit harsh,” Owens said.

“So the player does a defending tackle, what he needs to do is he needs to release the player on the ground, he needs to get up on his feet on the right side, so behind the ball and the ball carrier with his back towards his own try line, and then on his feet play the ball.

“So for me here this is textbook defending by Louis Rees-Zammit. Great tackle, releases, gets to his feet, so you have a clear release and then he gets to the ball legally on his feet.