CrapRefs.com

[This one's been done to death I know but I had drafted the following without publishing it but meaning to. Given the subsequent discussion on the About page - I'll post it now anyway if for no other reason than to have at least one embarrassed Kiwi call it like it is]

This was weird …

Referee boss Paddy O’Brien openly slagged off  Stu Dickinson for his performance in the test match between the All Blacks and Italy.

“If the referee is not accurate we have got to put our hand up. We need to educate that referee and get him better because that scrummaging on Saturday was not up to international standard.”

I agree with the first part and it was refreshing to see O’Brien finally saying something about his referee’s performances.

Australian rugby league referees get criticised and stood down by their bosses when they screw up but unlike the IRB, they seem to try and do something (effective) about it.

In the 4th game of last year’s baseball World Series, the 3rd base umpire Tim McLelland made 2 shocking calls during the game. He fronted at the press conference afterward and explained himself:

“in my heart I thought he left too soon, but the replay showed he didn’t. Then on the second one, it showed that Cano was off the bag when he was tagged. … I did not see that for whatever reason. So obviously, I missed both calls. I was just out there trying to do my job. And unfortunately there was by instant replay two missed calls”

A personal response for human error. He got it badly wrong – he faced the media (and hence the fans) and apologised.

There can be some closure this way. What other way is there when you have screwed up and everybody knows it?

What do we get?

Anti-All Black sentiment because Bryce Lawrence gets special treatment and Stu Dickinson gets singled out unfairly. Oh, and the slight angst of Springbok, Lions and Australian fans who think they have been hard done by.

O’Brien is not known for publicly criticising his referees. He was a police detective before going full time with the whistle and up until now has always acted like New Zealand’s internal affairs police spokesmen Greg O’Connor when speaking publicly about performance matters – completely backing his men.

I whole-heartedly agree with the last part - the scrummaging was definitely not up to International standard - Tialata was pitiful!

This was the weird bit: “We need to educate that referee and get him better”

I’m no fan of Dickinson but to choose this moment to comment on a refereeing performance is surprising for several reasons:

1. O’Brien was so clearly wrong. Tialata was outclassed – simple as that. He had no answer to a superior scrummager.
2. He publicly supported Bryce Lawrence for his poor performance in the first Lions test, in particular around his adjudication of the scrum when the Beast cheated like hell!
3. Why pick on Dickinson when there were a pethora of poor refereeing performances to chose from – especially around the scrum (Lawrence and Joubert in the 1st Bledisloe Cup test for starters)?
   Dickinson wasn’t to blame for a poor spectacle here – the All Blacks should hold their hand up for that

Most of the calls went against Australia and almost none were deserved.

Al Baxter got pinged several times where he did nothing wrong.

This was a particularly tight match and so it is difficult to know whether any of these calls had a significant bearing on the outcome but the All Blacks did kick a penalty from one of them so it is possible.

Joubert is not a bad ref and he had a reasonable game but the problem that dogged the second Lions v Springboks test remains – referees do not have a clue about what is happening in scrums. They do not know which (if any) player is offending.

They call infringements on a frustration-basis.

The longer it takes to set and re-set a scrum, the more likely the referee will award a penalty or free kick – regardless of what has actually happened.

Players do not know where they stand (like Baxter on Saturday night, like Phil Vickery in the second test, like countless others).

It is critical to the survival of the game that the scrum is sorted. It is one of few points of differentiation between rugby and rugby league and the way it is refereed must be cleared up before sponsors request that it be labotomised.

For too long, Jonathan Kaplan has stood alone as the world’s best referee and the only Southern Hemisphere ref worth his salt.

Marius Jonker was not flawless but he showed good judgement and a calm disposition in trying conditions as the All Blacks fought to save face against the French in the second test.

Jonker was not intimidated and caught up with the most significant events in the match.

After a solid Super14, perhaps we are finally seeing a second referee from the Southern Hemisphere emerge.

The Lions scrum was too good for the Royal XV but they were not allowed to profit from the advantage.

Assistant coach, Warren Gatland’s assessment was that “We felt that they were standing up under pressure and we got nothing out of it.”

The first scrum at the 30sec mark of this video led to the Lions first points from a penalty and then the utter destruction at the 1:20 mark was indicative of the Lion’s clear advantage in this facet.

Unfortunately referee Marius Jonker’s rulings at scrum-time are indicative of the clue-less approach Southern Hemisphere referees have towards scrummaging.

Or worse, the ‘get-on-with-it-at-all-costs’ attitude is encouraged by those who effectively own the Super14 and Tri-Nations competitions – News Ltd.