CrapRefs.com

The Blues had a genuine gripe with the Hurricanes 5th try. Kurtis Haiu was impeded by Nemia Tialata, not allowing him to get at Ma’a Nonu, who strolled in for the try.

Chris Pollock from New Zealand

Commentator Grant Nesbit (a Wellington fan) was prepared to concede that there was an argument here but fellow commentator Grant Fox (Auckland stalwart) said that there was ‘nothing wrong with it’ – that ‘the problems had started earlier than that for the Blues’.

I’m siding with Nesbit, this try should not have be allowed, regardless of how poor Auckland’s defence had been to that point (and after). Haiu is an abrasive defender who could have stopped Nonu.

It’s difficult to know whether the decision altered the course of the game.
Despite appearing down and out, the blues did come back into it the match in the second half scoring 2 tries soon after the break to reduce the margin to 15 points (which would have been just 8 if the try hadn’t been awarded).

That said, Auckland were always going to struggle to keep the home team at bay, especially given

• the open, fast-paced nature of the game
• the Hurricanes superior confidence and attacking nous; and
• Auckland’s refusal to show any defensive pattern and commitment

I had better add that apart from the try decision, referee Chris Pollock had a good game.

Graham Henry thinks some Super 14 games have become ‘a bit of a lottery’ and that refereeing is ‘the major area we need to work on’.

All Black coach Graham Henry speaks out about the refereeing issue

It’s hard to know what Henry’s motivation is here, pointing out issues prior to the international season. Surely he doesn’t think that his All Blacks need refereeing decisions to go their way in order to be competitive.

Perhaps he is just concerned for the general state of the game and believes that cleaning up the refereeing is the most important thing at this stage – and he may be right.

The game in New Zealand is not exactly at it’s popularity peak. The Tri-Nations is boring and the last thing the Super 14 needs is another team from NZ, Australia or South Africa.

Fear of losing the TV contract has been the prime motivation in the direction of the competition to date but the powers that be have failed to keep it exciting.

Meanwhile the Heineken Cup has become the world’s premier rugby competition.

I’m not so sure the 6 nations lights the world up but at least there’s more than 3 teams playing in it!

Sort the refereeing and sort the direction of the game before the southern hemisphere is a second rate breeding ground for the more lucrative northern hemisphere competitions.

Being a Highlanders fan and seeing Matt Goddard in the middle for this game I was particularly nervous.

Super14 referee, Matt Goddard (Australia)

I started writing this post before the game kicked off in anticipation that Goddard would provide at least one moment of disgust for those who wanted to see a good match if not blight the whole encounter.

That this match was not a classic encounter was not his fault. Goddard did a good job controlling this game.

Relevant issues

• Goddard had been under a lot of (justified) pressure this season
• The payers knew it and put additional pressure on him right from the start
• The post tackle/ruck area of this game was particularly difficult with 3+ international class loose ball practitioners using borderline tactics

Particularly effective were ex-sevens players Olando Soakai and Adam Thompson for Otago and Luke Watson and Shalk Berger for the visitors.

Overall a disappointing result for the Highlanders and the Stormers are playing well below the class of their playing roster.

Matt Goddard’s performance was the silver lining.

The Chiefs’ second try against the Cheetahs was scored by Serge Lilo after flanker Tanerau Lattimer had fallen out of play before Lilo was presented with the ball 2 feet from the try line.

68:49 mark in the game, 32 seconds into this clip

Lattimer was out – no question. The linesman/touch judge Daniel Mitchelmore (he doesn’t deserve the moniker of ‘assistant referee’ or even ‘assistant to the referee’) was very close to the play at the time so it’s very hard to see how he could have gotten it so wrong.

My good friend from Huntly – who religiously backs the Chiefs to win every year in the annual neighbourhood sweepstake – can’t talk about it without grinning from ear to ear.

That’s enough evidence for me to conclude with absolute objectivity that the try should never have been given.

It’s hard to see what touch judge, Mitchelmore was looking so hard at in the slow motion replays.

Calls like these change the tempo and momentum of a match -they can change the entire outcome of a game.

[What about a movie-like deja vu forward play of what the game would be like if crap calls like this were never made? A kind of 'Sliding Doors' effect]

It affects the decisions, tactics, strategy and confidence that both teams play with from that point forward.

In this case, a 3 point margin becomes 8.

The Cheetahs were just one penalty or drop-goal away from drawing even and there were still 10 minutes to play.

Less than 5 minutes later, Cheetahs flanker Heinrich Brussow is shown a yellow card. Donald kicks the penalty and the game is effectively out of the home side’s reach.

[The yellow was deserved]

The Chiefs scored another try when Brussow was off the field, resulting in a somewhat flattering 18 point margin.

The question is ‘would this have happened if the Lilo try was not given?’

Too often poor refereeing decisions seem to be overshadowed by the end result. On the surface, 18 points is a reasonably convincing margin but it could have been completely different but we will never know.

Cheetah’s fans will feel robbed by the touchie – and rightly so.

Australian Super 14 rugby referee Stu Dickinson had another of his typical, heavy whistle-blowing efforts on Friday night as he effectively sealed the Highanders’ fate by sending off their captain, Jimmy Cowan in Auckland.

Cowan is an aggressive player and the shot was dangerous, no question [ala Paul Quinn]. He deserved a yellow card – no question. But it didn’t warrant being sent off.

Cowan was getting frustrated with the Blues interfering tactics at the breakdown. Kurtis Haiu was a particular offender but wasn’t being picked up for it. Cowan pointed it out on several occasions to Dickinson but his earlier indiscretion had already seen him penalised so it seemed all Cowan was going to get was the standard “I’ll look at it.”

The Highlanders were not getting their share of 50/50 calls. Jimmy Cowan was doing his best to keep himself in the forefront of Dickinson’s mind but unfortunately, this only seemed to motivate the referee to give the maximum penalty for the late shot on Jimmy Gopperth getting a clearing kick away from behind the goal line.

Auckland are playing well – no question. The Southerners were going to need to get at least half of the 50/50 calls and possibly some luck as well to win this one but bottom line is that Dickinson negatively impacted the game and isn’t getting any better.