Rugby Red Card - Controversy, what controversy?

Controversy, what controversy?

Written by Neville Huxham, on 26-10-2007 16:32

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Submitted by Michael Katzenellenbogen:

The Springboks are the World Champions and that’s the reason why all of South Africa celebrated on Saturday last week. We all joined in and it went on long into the night.

It was only on Sunday morning tuning into Sky News in my hotel room that I was confronted with the news that Mark Cueto’s try was controversially disallowed by the TMO for the final, Stuart Dickinson. At the time when I watched it live I was under the distinct impression that Dickinson made the correct call. It was clear from the TV-replay that Cueto’s toe touched the line before he grounded the ball.

The English media made out that this was the turning point in the game, but I beg to differ. The game only swung in the Springboks favour when Steyn kicked his 50-metre penalty in the 62nd minute. Cueto’s effort came early in the second half and it was a routine call about the timing of the touch down. The Springboks played conservative rugby, were never behind and deserved their victory.

Were there controversial calls? Yes there were and they were against the Boks and not the English. Alain Rolland’s worst call in my opinion came early in the second half when Toby Flood shoved Percy Montgomery into the advertising boards after Montgomery kicked the ball over the dead ball line. The important thing to remember is that the referee was not sure of the intent of Flood and should have referred the matter to the TMO to make a ruling on foul play because it happened in the in goal area.

On the TV replay you could see that Percy was shoved in the back without the ball and play should have restarted with a penalty anywhere on the 22-metre line. Then there was the shoulder charge of John Smit on Lewis Moody. Smit had every right to stand his ground and for my money Moody milked the shoulder contact, but that cost the Boks three points. An even more cynical incident happened early in the first half when the same Moody stuck his boot out to trip a charging Butch James. That was so sly it smacked of cheating and should have been dealt with in a much stricter manner than just a penalty. It was immature and to me illustrated the frame of mind of the English.

What did I think of Mr. Rolland? I personally would not have given him the final, as he was reluctant to act on the players that infringe on the ground. This would have been one of the areas that would have concerned Jake White and his staff.

In the Final it was no different. Rolland allowed the players to hold onto the ball on the ground and we hardly got any of the quick balls we got against Argentina and England in earlier games.

Who would I have liked to see refereeing? It must be said that Stuart Dickinson was unlucky not to get the final as he in my opinion had a very steady tournament and through the season has given some fine performances in 2007. Another referee that impressed was Paul Honiss and we can only wonder why his fellow countryman, Paddy O’Brien screwed him over. The Final would then have been his world record international appearance as a referee.

I still remember the hype in 2003 when the buzz was all about if Andre Watson was going to be the first man in history to referee consecutive finals. I also remember how Watson milked it. Steve Griffiths was the manager of referees at the IRB back then and a real airhead. The World Cup had only happened 4 times before 2003, so there was no clear tradition set. The appointment of Watson to the final in 2003 was detrimental to any claim by a southern hemisphere referee in 2007.

How short sighted by the establishment at the time.

Then there is Chris White, who refereed several club and provincial finals before 2007, but must have upset the hierarchy as he was nowhere in the appointments for the playoffs.

The All Blacks are still so upset with White’s fellow Englishman (Wayne Barnes) after their quarterfinal exit that no “Pommie” was going to get anything more from any Kiwi.

Today sees the final of the Currie Cup in Bloemfontein and the referee for the final is Mark Lawrence. It is just reward for Lawrence who had a superb season in the Super 14 as well as the Currie Cup. He was controversially left off the World Cup panel in favour of Marius Jonker (nicknamed “Plonker” Jonker by his fellow referees) after being marked the highest by all SANZAR officials in the 2007 Super 14.

Credit to Lawrence for applying himself despite the disappointment of the World Cup. He edged out Jonker 5-2 at SARU’s selectors meeting to grab the highest appointment of his career.

Now hopefully Andre Watson will wake up and see that even his own panel of selectors disagree with him and the IRB on the state of the rankings at SARU.

It must be for this reason that Watson is seeking to have his selector’s panel replaced with a new one. But of Watson I can only use an old golfers saying: “Beware of the man who moves his ball in rough”

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ML Katzenellenbogen

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