[Lions SA tour] The Lions sphere of influence in full swing
When you play the Lions, you face a formidable group of managers, coaches, trainers, physios, lawyers, administrators, journalists and media organisations.
The papers do their bit by trying to influence the thinking of referees. For the second time in just 3 games, the Lions are moaning about refereeing – claiming to be hard done by.
This time is was Wayne Barnes turn.
The Lions are trying to get the referees to see things their way – to get them to officiate in ways that align with what they see are their strong points.
At this stage it’s the scrum and the breakdown, although it’s hard to imagine they will have an advantage in the loose with Burger, Spies and co. Perhaps they are just trying to nullify one of South Africa’s more potent weapons.
To be fair, the Lions aren’t the first to engage in this kind of activity. Australian Super14 coaches used to show referees video of Josh Kronfeld ‘cheating’ before games to try and combat his highly effective (possibly borderline) strategies at the breakdown.
South African supporters aren’t scared of a bit of moaning themselves. A famous ‘would you like fries with that’ catch-cry of their commentators used to go something like ‘if Butch James did that he would have been sent off’, despite the fact that James would refuse to use his arms when he tacked.
[Joel Stransky and Naas Botha are excluded from this (and all) criticism of South African commentators]
