Houston has had its fair share of problems to deal with in its time … Yet these pale into insignificance compared to the problem the IRB are facing right now …
And I am not even sure they realise it, but that is a story for another day …
Apart from there just being far too much of the stuff these days (talk about killing the golden goose), rugby has become a game decided not by the skill of the players on the field, but by how a referee blows a game and how players react to said interpretation of the laws …
This not only lends itself to potential corruption (a point raised by Gary Lemke on Twitter, and then in Sunday’s Weekend Argus) – the subjectivity of the law interpretation means a referee can virtually penalize any side he wants come breakdown and scrum time and justify it one way or another, but also takes away massively from the game as a spectacle.
Do you really want to spend 90 odd minutes of your time watching a game between 44 finely tuned athletes that could be decided by one man’s interpretation? A man who should be in the background facilitating the spectacle … More importantly, do you want to be a coach or player whose livelihood could then depend on this fellow’s whistle?
Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské had it spot on a few weeks back when he said “You actually have to analyse the way the referee officiates more than you analyse your opponents”
And boy did those words come back to haunt him on the weekend …
The Cheetahs were pipped at the post via a last-minute penalty, going down to the Brumbies 24-23 in Canberra. The final penalty in question was not the problematic one, as it did look as if the Cheetahs wheeled the scrum, and that is illegal. But the Cheetahs conceded a slew of highly questionable scrum penalties late in the game, this after Kiwi referee Keith Brown had let the Brumbies go unpunished throughout the game for regular early engagements … And these allowed the Brumbies fight back from being 23-10 behind with half an hour to go.
Drotské was magnanimous enough to say afterwards that they had more than enough chances to beat the Brumbies, despite the late penalty sinking them.
“A couple of botched passes in our own half cost us. We weren’t physical enough at the breakdowns. We had our chances to win, but wrong options cost us,” said Drotské.
But I think he has every right to feel cheated. Keith Brown is either the most inept referee to walk the planet, or is in fact, a cheat! There is no other way to describe how he could let the Brumbies get away with the early engagements all game, yet choose to penalize the visitors for the same offence in the last 30 minutes when the Brumbies were looking like losing the game …
And SARU actually cannot continue to take this lying down. They simply have to ask both SANZAR and the IRB to look into this specific performance from Brown. Sure it will be construed as sour grapes from the Aussies, but who cares? The referee has a white card in his pocket to call in the citing commissioner, but who holds the white card for the referee himself to be investigated?
But given how we bowed down to the Aussies come the discussions surrounding the structure of the current Super Rugby product (killing both the golden goose and the Currie Cup), I would bet my house on SARU sitting there meekly and just accepting this …
But that is again, a story for another day …
Back to the ER patient that is rugby … Brendan Venter raised the point going into the weekend, saying that referees are making it too easy for the defending team.
“The coaches are now paying more attention to defence because they will do whatever is necessary to win matches. The referees have gone totally overboard with the issue of players smothering the attacking team’s ball at the breakdown area.”
Venter is just reiterating the issue at hand … The referee has too much power. Not only are their interpretations dictating the style of play, but also the actual results.
IRB, we do not have a problem, we have an emergency!
I couldn’t agree with you more.
My bias towards the Cheetahs aside, I watched the England France game on Sunday. It was a great game, but what really struck me was how different the N Hemisphere refereeing was. I didn’t understand a lot of the calls, but the game flowed so nicely because the ref wasn’t obsessing about the breakdown (despite what I thought were some fairly obvious transgressions). It seemed almost better to err on the side of leniency, for the good of the game.
If you’re going to give that much power to referees, at least take away some of the subjectivity implied in the term “interpretation”.
Agreed Biobot. England vs France was fantastic to watch. Also, it seems that when you take on a more attacking approach, like the kiwis do, the game tends to flow a little better …
Spot on!
I know that one shouldn’t complain about the referee but how many games have been swung to the other team because of how a referee decides to blow his whistle?
The Bulls win the 2007 Super Rugby tournament because Steve Walsh Jnr Jnr doesn’t blow a penalty for Derick Kuun stealing the ball illegally in the scrum in the Sharks 22 (Matfield admitted as much in his book).
Bryce Lawrence absolutely screwed the Springboks in the World Cup over last year (and I’m still not sure if my passion for the game has recovered).
Keith Brown over the weekend!!
Referees need to be more consistent and blow according to the rules – not an interpretation of the rules. I think soccer is lucky in that the law book says this about the off side line and that is exactly how the law is blown. Rugby is always up for interpretation, it’s how players like Brussouw and McCaw thrive. One ref wants the ball to be released immediately, another gives a three count.
Blow it according to how it is written – Finished!!
Tank i think you hit the nail on the head. I did not watch the game at all as refs are slowly killing it for us i agree we need them but i think it’s time we go back to the old days where if you are on my side of the ruck i can stamp you out also the scrum law is a big thing there is only two ways to get a ball from a scrum you hook it or you push them of the ball turning it does not give you a turnover ball as that’s what the Cheetahs was going for But alas we can sit here and talk about it all day long The IRB and SA Rugby will just bow and take Murdoch money and smile
You are right, and I find it tremendously sad that people are just giving up on watching rugby because its no fun to watch …
This should be a must read for SARU, SANZAR and the IRB.
This is the most accurate analysis I have read about the modern rugby game!
WELL DONE TANK
Very kind comment. Thanks
Brown is inept and a cheat. Referees manipulate matches beyond just the result. Fetchers have become redundant. Rugby in the Southern Hemisphere is no longer a spectacle and Superbru is in a manic state.
It is clear that the 2 SANZAR partners (n/z and aus) have substandard ref! It is due to there weak and no existent provincial rugby!!! This is why SA refs are so well respected around the world!!! How can you have and kiwi as boss of world referring when his own country men are so weak!! The Irb need to open there eyes and star looking at the self and the standard of referring!! Others wise this wonderful game of ours will go back wards!!!!
Very well said Tank! I think rugby is probably the only game in the world where so much is left to a referee’s ‘interpretation’ (or mis-interpretation). The rules should be more concise and clear and the referee should only apply these rules.
Now we’ve created gods with whistles on the field who are protected by Paddy and his cronies who have become untouchables.
Well said Tank!! Thank-You for this article – BRILLIANT! I’ve been saying it for a long time now – we are being cheated by certain referee’s – especially since the 2010 Tri-Nations (after what seemed a ‘lull’ since the cheating days of the late 90’s and early 2000’s)..
It’s all been orchestrated by Paddy O’Brien. Just like in any other company or profession – junior employees often “suck-up” to the boss. Well refereeing is no different – the refs around the world are all sucking-up to their boss – the ardent New Zealander – and prime cheat – O’Brien. It’s called match-fixing. Match fixing through the ‘art’ of appointing certain refs – to referee certain games – mostly involving the Springboks…
Remember – who is Paddy O’Brien’s big mate? Keith Lawrence. Who is Keith Lawrence? Former head of the NZ Referee’s Association – and the human cockroach that penned that infamous “Let’s get those japies” e-mail in 1999 to his Aussie counterparts. (Something that the feeblest SARFU President in history – Rian Oberholzer – swept under the carpet to appease his mates in SANZAR)Remember. Who is Bryce Lawrence? Keith’s son. Getting the picture…?
After we beat Wales in our opening 2011 RWC fixture – it was absolutely NO co-incidence that Bryce Lawrence referee’d the Aussie vs Ireland RWC fixture – blowing Australia out the game – thus ensuring Aussie came 2nd in their pool (Ireland 1st) – to play the Boks in the QF – having come 1st in ours. The thinking being – from a Kiwi perspective – that Aussie is the one team that could beat us – knowing that the Boks were very capable of beating the AB’s – especially with Frans Steyn playing at no. 12 – how he ignited the backline last year… Then – very cleverly – with Bryce now “owing” Australia one, as it were – mmmmmm – guess who gets appointed to referee the QF… Bryce Lawrence…
Make no mistake – the match-fixing commenced in 2010 already. After our dream Tri-Nations season in 2009, and with the ‘new’ breakdown laws being applied from 2010 – the SA teams still dominated the 2010 Super 14 – remember – the Stormers beating all 5 NZ franchises, and the Final being played between the Bulls and Stormers at Soccer City. Thus showing that SA rugby’s dominance and form from 2009 – had continued into 2010… Therefore – right – something “had to be done” to stop the Bok/ SA rugby momentum as it were – just 14 months out from the 2011 RWC in NZ…
That “something” was the appointment of Northern Hemisphere refs – to ref all 6 our Tri-Nations games in 2010. Why? Paddy O’Brien knows that SA players/ the Boks traditionally ‘struggle’ or get frustrated with N. hemisphere refs interpretations… A very clever, subtle, way to ‘get’ at the Boks.
Remember the diabolical – CHEATING – in the 2010 Tri-Nations. Our players getting immediate yellow cards – and Richie McCaw’s endless warnings… The most crucial stat of 2010:
No. of penalties against a team, per yellow card issued (stat from an article written by Rod MacQueen (former Aussie RWC-winning coach).
SA: 6:1
Australia: 7:1
NZ: 43:1
That says it all. The AB’s had to break the law over 7 times more than us – before the vermin finally got yellow carded! Even international rugby scribes (like Peter Bills and Rod MacQueen himself) could not believe the bias in the Tests between the Boks and the AB’s that year.. McQueen going on to write something along the lines of: “…there seems to be one set of laws for New Zealand, and another for the rest of the rugby world…”
Peter Bills and Rod MacQueen are not South Africans (stating the obvious here) – so – the Kiwi’s cannot level their usual “whingeing South Africans” accusations at us/them…
Result? Success for Paddy O’Brien’s strategy – SA rugby’s, the Springboks’ momentum was thwarted in time for the 2011 RWC…
Make no mistake – it was ordained by that cockroach – Paddy O’Brien – that 2011 was to be NZ’s year – and he ensured as such – through match-fixing.
Tank – how about using your power of influence – the power of your pen – to call for a judicial enquiry into match-fixing in rugby? Or – at least – how Paddy O’Brien has appointed certain refs to certain matches – and why? And – see the results in said Tests too…
Hell of a comment Nick, in fact almost a column 🙂 But thank you, and you make a very good point with none other than Tim Noakes agreeing with you. He truly believes the 2011 RWC was rigged in favour of the All Blacks. Thing is, the IRB definitely think they are untouchable. A mail I sent them two weeks ago was met with …. total silence …
There are too many inconsistencies in how the game is being controlled, not just by the ref, but all his assistants as well.
How often have we seen how refs assistants get TOO involved in a game, and then in other cases not involved at all. Lately there are also quite a few cases where the TMO has abused his power (Varsity Cup a few weeks ago when I think it was Meeuwesen that bullied the ref into a decision that was not in line with his quetion) followed a week later by a TMO who didnt point out “a reason why a try could not be scored” in the Bulls vs Cheetahs game (2nd, 3rd, 4th movement), because it was not part of the question……
I also noticed yesterday in the France vs England game when the last try was scored by the French, and the ref called time off to check it, the clock was not stopped; the same clock that determines when the hooter sounds. 60 odd seconds lost in the last few minutes of a game that literally came down to the wire.
Players get picked and dropped based on good or bad performances, but not enough seems to be done about poor performances by the man in the middle and his mates.
An excellent article Tank,at last someone is concerned enough to say what so many of us feel;thank you.
I love rugby,I watch it every weekend-from schoolboys to international- as I have done for over 40 years.Over the years I have been a player,spectator,benefactor and sponsor of this fine game. No longer.
I have stopped watching rugby as the referee is no longer the conductor but has become the producer – number 31 has become number 1 by the proverbial country mile.The free spirit and beauty of the game has been castrated by the official.It is simply no longer entertaining to spend 80 minutes listening to the blast of the whistle and watching the resetting of the scrum.Fans no longer have time for this weekend after weekend.
The last match I watched and will proberbally ever watch,unless the laws are changed,was UCT vs NMMU.My conclussion was that it was impossible for the referee to be that incompetent and partisan.Discussing this inept display with other rugby lovers led me to believe that I am not alone in my thinking – referees simply have the power to determine the outcome of a match.The players are powerless.How sad.
When the Stormers play the Bulls at Newlands later this month,I will be at the Cape Town stadium watching Ajax along with a number of other ex-rugby fans, something I might have thought tantamount to treason before last years World Cup.
Agree with you 100% – I am indeed also demoralised, although thankfully not as irreversibly so as you are!
But please, please, do me a favour – watch some N. Hemisphere rugby before you finally give up – you’d be surprised how they let the game run.
It’s been a very frustrating start to the season with contentious issues in probably 40-50% of games at all levels. It’s almost as if during the off season the refs are pumped choc-a-block with courses, seminars etc and then come out extra “amp’ed” and perhaps wanting to be a little too involved to up their points with their bosses.
I assume refs are often reviewed on TV coverage and I believe therein lies a lot of the problem – to judge properly one needs to watch refs in action live so that results of their interpretations can be viewed in the context of the game in progress.
Case in point – the NMMU/UCT game you refer to – at the time I kept my mouth very firmly shut re the ref because UCT played so badly, and did make many errors, but the ref in that game was also very bad, I thought.
I wasn’t raising the ref issue too much but neither was anyone else, so decided to re-watch on TV and guess what? He didn’t actually seem so bad!
More often that not, it’s not the penalties themselves (either given, or not given) that cut a teams momentum, but rather the TIMING of them or where on the field they take place. Directional TV cameras don’t let one visualise this.
A penalty in ones attack or defence zone is a 100 times more valuable.
Especially in lower leagues (maybe not at Super 15/Test level – probably because of “live” review!!) it’s easy for refs to get away with balancing a seemingly one-sided penalty count by giving (or not giving) penalties in the harmless mid field zone – I often get the feeling this is being done. The ref then comes out smelling like a rose!
The stats which go down in the annuls only show penalty counts – they don’t show when/where or how crucial they were.
I was also very interested to read that John Mitchell has also called into question the competence of this same ref when he was Assist. Ref in Saturday’s Super 15 game Lions/Sharks.
Some great points raised Freddy, thanks. And agree re the Six nations and H Cup – remarkably, it has made for better viewing! The Kiwi sides in the S15 still seem to play a flowing game because the emphasis is on attack. I find it a little sad that the referees have become such a focus …
A well written article – however I get concerned when the word cheat is banded about – inept, poor game maybe. It reminds me of when some of us had to come down and play WP (cricket) in the days when you had local umpires – were they cheats or just bloody useless? Tank, you know as well as I do that both coaches and players will the majority of the time say after a game, “we did have our chances to win”. I honestly felt that the last penalty against the Cheetahs was correctly called – it was some of the previous one’s that left question marks. Ask Jake White what he thought of Brown’s refereeing on Saturday – he often bemoaned Aus and NZ refs when he was ‘Bok coach. One thing that has never changed when it comes to referee’s is what is mentioned in one of the comments – the word interpretation – that is the key word. I honestly believe the problem begins and ends with the lawmakers. I said it before – fans need to go and watch Vodocom Cup games, club games,U19 games,U21 games – then you will see some interesting refereeing – as for the refs assistants – well most of the time they are a bigger joke than what you get at S15 or CC. Finally, I do wish many South Africans would drop the Aussie/NZ phobia – for 40 years we had to hear about the “rooi gevaar” – even tomato sauce was seen as a communist plot – now we have the “ANZAC gevaar” – if they breed such low class cheats how come so many of our uncles, aunts, cousins, children, grandchildren have decided to live there .
Very well said Neil. And good point re the cheat word. Did not use it without due consideration I must say. I see Lyndon Bray has come out and said the same thing re the Brumbies’ early engagements which is very good of him. This while Andre Watson just defends our refs willy nilly … Perhaps variations of the word cheat exist … Like “Blowing for the home side” … even if not purposefully … hear you on the ANZAC gevaar. Think it stems from us Saffers always being hammered in the Super Rugby negotiations, and we should be blaming ourselves …