Rubbish referee! A call we hear too often from from the stands as well as from within countless living rooms across the world as referee errors continue to blight the game.
Last Word On Sports Rugby Analyst Gillian Stevens posted this piece on Monday highlighting many Southern Hemisphere Rugby fans’ frustration with the poor level of officiating in the current Rugby Championship.
A Rubbish Referee Article
I also had to take a step back from expressing my views too early in order to ensure that emotion did not get in the way of reason. I had been keenly awaiting both games as the start to a 5 game marathon on Saturday. The All Blacks versus Argentina game was first on the menu and it did not take long time for the original excitement to turn into a sense of disappointment as referee Pascal Gauzere and his Assistant Referees started having a disproportionate effect on the match. Knock-on’s were not detected, line outs were awarded to the wrong team and Richie McCaw appeared to be invisible to the referee as he dived on top of any ball that touched a blade of grass. All Black winger Julian Savea was the victim of an early tackle in the first few minutes of the game, when he had looked to have beaten his man on the outside.
It was only when Ma’a Nonu’s clearance kick was charged down by Leonardo Senatore that the officiating turned into a joke. Senatore collected the loose ball and was past the defense and one his way to score when Gauzere inexplicably ruled a knock on. I place a lot of faith in the views of former Test referee Jonathan Kaplan (he holds the record for most Tests officiated) and his view after the game was that he found it inexplicable that Gauzere did not allow play to continue until Senatore had dotted the ball down so that he could refer the incident to the TMO. As he had blown the whistle before Senatore had dotted down, that option was not available to him. The only explanation open to us then is that Gauzere does not know the difference between a knock on and a charge down.
Having allowed ourselves time to calm down, it was on to the next game. South Africa versus Australia. Both teams had a point to prove. South Africa had been poor in their two games against Argentina and Australia had been given a bit of a hiding by the All Blacks the week before. It was therefore a shock to the system that within a couple of hours, the course of two international Test matches made world headlines for the wrong reasons. This time, George Clancy delivered one of the most controversial refereeing performances of 2014.
The first inexplicable decision was to penalize Springbok number 8 Duane Vermeulen for a dangerous tackle on Wallaby James Slipper. You can quite easily replace dangerous with fantastic… Bok skipper Jean de Villiers pleaded wit Clancy to review the tackle with the TMO and Clancy’s rather arrogant answer was that they could review it behind the poles while the penalty kick was being taken. Unfortunately for Mr. Clancy, the replays proved De Villiers’ point. Don’t take my word for it… here it is..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72OJA7bhmGE
In was in the 66th minute though that Mr Clancy put forward evidence of his own ineptitude. Bryan Habana tackled Adam Ashley-Cooper with an arm across the shoulder and neck. An obvious penalty. Clancy ran in with intent and was immediately digging in his pocket for a card. The closest Assistant Referee advised him that it should be a penalty only and not a card, so it was decided to go to TMO Ben Skeen for assistance with the decision. At this juncture, De Villiers once again intervened and reminded Clancy that he himself had been the victim of a high tackle ten meters from the Wallaby tryline and the result was a penalty and not a yellow card. Skeen backed the Assistant Referee and stated that he felt it was a penalty only and no card. It was then that Clancy shocked the rugby world by ignoring all advice and pulling out a yellow card. At that point, he took on the role of Judge, Jury and Executioner and did his own thing. To quote Kaplan on Twitter, “I give up”.
It is at this point that I have to start stringing together what is becoming a long list of truly poor refereeing performances and start questioning if the current standard of refereeing belongs in a professional sport? Admittedly, referees probably do not have the support from the IRB in terms of guidance in what do to in certain situations, but at the same time the protection they are offered when they are honestly poor seems to be akin to an ostrich sticking its’ head in the sand. Players and officials are prohibited from making any form of public comment and face censure should they choose to do so. It was sickening to watch Heyneke Meyer and Jean de Villiers defend the referee and accept the blame for their loss with a smile on their faces. Neither of them could give their honest opinion, no matter how much they were burning to do so.
We can never demand perfection from any human being, ourselves included. What needs to be taken out of the game are the obvious errors. Until this happens, Rugby Union will continue to fight the stigma of a game flawed by officiating incompetence.
And what of the odd title to this article? It is certainly a double entrende.. you may consider my thoughts to be rubbish… you may consider the referee to be rubbish.. The one thing I know is that very few people are happy with the quality of game management by the appointed officials in our beloved game…
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