CrapRefs.com

There’s been plenty of criticism and bad feeling about the Kiwi ref.
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I’ve certainly not held back when I think Lawrence has had a crap performance and this was one of his worst!

He comes from my region (Tauranga, Bay of Plenty) and I had him referee my club matches back in the mid 90s when he was coming through the refereeing ranks.

I think his school teacher on-field manner got to me as much as some of the bad tendencies he had as a ref like picking on one team for periods of time and having no clue at the scrum.

For me, Lawrence made his first mistake in this match on the 2:26 mark when he ruled Australia had knocked the ball on when it looked like they had not.

It seemed like his second blunder was also against Australia when no action was taken when JP Peterson took a flyer in the charge down of James O’Connor’s conversion.

It then looked like experienced South African lock Victor Matfield got away with diving over the top of a ruck on the 18:30 mark but then the calls – or more accurately ‘no calls’ – seemed to stack up against the Springboks.

Heinrich Brussow left the field with an injury after a hint of a cheap shot at a ruck by an Australian and David Pockock cheated like hell from there on and got away with it. Not letting tackled players go, playing the ball on the ground and suspect tactics slowing down the ball in contact.

This is the job of an openside flanker for sure but the job of a referee is to apply the rule book and this didn’t happen in this particular aspect of the game and the Springboks suffered.

South Africa are not a side to allow too many players to mess with their ball. They have the most ferocious clear out of any team in world rugby. Their forwards have incredible upper body strength and there’s plenty of nous there as well in Matfield, Burger and Smit.

The Springbok defence in tight is stoic and their forwards go on marauding pick and gos that have opponents backpedaling at a rate of knots. They seems unstoppable at these times.

But the Springboks did not give Pocock the attention he deserved. They could have run at him forcing the Australian number 7 to make tackles rather than be the first man to the breakdown. They could have set their targets earlier in the contact, coming up a little short to ensure quick ball rather than going as far as the runner could and rely on getting defenders away.

Despite the warning from the Australian media: “Australians should anticipate a penalty-fest come Sunday” – Lawrence only blew 10 penalties in the match (6-4 South Africa).

I personally enjoy rugby way more when there are less penalties rather than more but South Africans will argue that with all the possession they had, the penalty count should have been higher in their favour, especially given the indiscretions of Pocock at the breakdown.

It sux when a referee’s call (or general performance) ruins a match.

Tags: David Pocock, Heinrich Bruwssow, Springboks, Wallabies
Posted in Rugby World Cup 2011 | 2 Comments »