The confusion surrounding Ruben Love's yellow card in the All Blacks' 29-24 defeat at Soweto stemmed from widespread sharing of screenshots showing the wrong breakdown incident.
Love was sent to the sin bin in the 35th minute after referee Nika Amashukeli deemed him offside at the breakdown where Ox Nche first received the ball — with Love's right foot in front of the tryline at that moment. Social media debate erupted because many observers assumed the sanction related to Love's tackle on Manie Libbok earlier in the same passage of play, when he appeared to be arriving from an onside position.
Amashukeli clarified his reasoning during the broadcast, identifying two separate infringements in the sequence. The first was by Quinn Tupaea (No.13), which drew the initial penalty. Love's offside position at the subsequent ruck constituted the second infringement, and under World Rugby laws 9.8 to 9.10 — covering repeated infringement by players of the same team — Amashukeli was entitled to escalate the sanction to a yellow card.
The passage of play began when Cobus Reinach stripped the ball from Asafo Aumua, triggering a Springbok attack from inside their own half. After Jasper Wiese broke through two tackles and offloaded to Nche, who kept the ball alive for Libbok, the phase ended with a Bok penalty advantage. The Boks worked the ball through further phases before Love's offside position at the ruck denied Nche a try, with Amashukeli going back to the penalty and calling Love over.