Lots of moaning about refereeing in this weekend’s Southern Hemispheres’ internationals
French coach mark Marc Lievremont struggled to fathom some of referee Marius Jonker’s decisions around the ruck in France’s narrow loss to the All Blacks in the second test in Wellington.
The All Blacks played a lot better than they did in the first half, taking it to the French at every opportunity and actually looking like they had a game plan.
The All Blacks probably had a greater claim for a harsh call when a try was disallowed in the right hand corner. The ball looked like it was over the line but the doubt was given to the visitors by video ref, George Ayoub.
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The Lions felt they were hard done by with a high penalty count early on and difficulty in scrummaging. Both captain and coach were quick to point the finger at New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence.
They thought they had ascendancy in the scrummage with the Boks choosing hooker John Smit on the tight head and Andy Sheridan having destroyed every tight head he had come up against to that point. But there are 3 relevant points to note here:
- Andy Sheridan destroyed all before this match but is now injured;
- The Lions asked referee before the match to ‘reward the stronger scrum’; and
- The Lions did not seem to factor in ‘the Beast’
Vickery was out played and out muscled rather than hard done by.
Bryce Lawrence wouldn’t have a clue about scrums – it’s not an area of the game that the Southern Hemisphere put much emphasis on and even Lawrence’s home side the All Blacks struggle with it but all reports from respected English journalism allude to the fact that Vickery had no answers to the Beast and should probably have been subbed earlier to give the Lions a better platform.
Breaking from his captain and coach, “[Graham] Rowntree [] said that he had no problem with any of Lawrence’s decisions.”
It took the Lions a while to get going, some of which could have been down to interpretations as they were being penalised quite heavily early on.
Referee Lawrence settled when the Lions settled (after replacing Vickery with Jones) and then it was game on. A brave effort that could be remembered as much for coaching decisions as turning points.
- (McGeechan) Leaving Vickery on for so long; and
- (de Villiers) Changing so many good players to upset the rhythm and nearly cost the game
It will be interesting to see how the Lions media machine work on squaring up the penalty count on the days between the tests and what effect this will have on the scrum in particular.
