Windbag whistleblowers

In the Press kit given to media covering the Rugby World Cup was a nifty little radio device, called Sports Ears, which enables one to listen to what the referees and touch judges are saying on the field.

The idea certainly isn’t new, having in fact been introduced in South Africa some time ago under the title Field Ears or “Veld-ore.”

The difference in Australia has been the quality of the sound; with the comments by referees coming through so clearly that one may as well be sitting alongside them.

This peep into the innermost workings of a game have been fascinating and revealing – none more so than when the unloved Stuart Dickinson took charge of the Springboks’ match against Georgia.

Whereas Peter Marshall, with that strident Australian twang of his grating in your head, had been businesslike and strict in the match between South Africa and England, Dickinson was jocular; exchanging wisecracks with his touch judges and allowing himself the occasional giggle.

While not wanting to be a killjoy I found this attitude quite strange in something as serious to all the players as the World Cup plus given Dickinson’s history in games involving South African teams.

Dickenson referred to his touch judges, Paul Honiss of New Zealand and Alan Lewis of Ireland, as “Mate” and “Lewey” and it was surprising how much repartee there was going on among them.

At one point, after a Georgia kick-off had gone directly into touch and Lewis held his flag horizontally above his head, Dickinson quipped "what was that signal, Lewey?" and on another occasion, after the touch judges took a while to signal a successful conversion, he laughed "take your time boys.”

When irritation between the players threatened to boil over Dickinson shouted "just keep calm! I’ll look after it, don’t do something silly!" but the fact was that he was not looking after it.

Dickinson had constantly warned the Georgians about their "pillars" on the sides of the rucks and mauls – enabling them to constantly catch Neil de Kock in possession – but, possibly influenced by the fact that the crowd were right behind the "Lelos" and jeering every decision that went against them, he consistently failed to make them attach or get behind the last feet.

Dickinson, however, did show that he has taken at least one lesson to heart – penalising the Georgians for a lineout throw-in that did not go the required five metres – and providing a wry flashback to one of his worst performances when he had failed to pick up a similar infringement by New Zealand which led to a try by Mark Hammett.

Both World Cup matches, against England and Georgia, in which I used my "ears" confirmed the influence and input of touch judges.

The crucial pair of penalties that took the Boks’ from 6-all at halftime to 12-6 down after 55 minutes against England were both signalled by another "old friend" of South Africa’s, Ireland’s Dave McHugh. Both were against the Bok backline for being offsides out wide and both met with the disapproval of the team’s coaches who felt the players singled out were falling back and having no influence on play.

In the game against Georgia it was TJ Paul Honiss that generated the yellow card against Hendro Scholtz for killing the ball – telling Dickinson, "that’s the third one this half," thus reminding him of previous warnings issued to the Boks.

Honiss has a reputation for being a nit-picker when it comes to scrummaging and could be heard telling Dickinson, about Lawrence Sephaka, that "No1 is going in on the angle" while the match official was on the far side of a scrum.

There was also an offensive element of the schoolyard snitch in the way the TJs would tell on somebody getting up to something; such as Lewis calling out "Stu, just have a word with green No8" when Joe van Niekerk took exception to yet another off-sides tackle.

Referees would probably tell you that there is no other way to "manage" a game – especially as they do not have eyes in the back of his heads - but I was nevertheless astounded to hear the din they make and the extent to which they instruct the players rather than simply using the whistle to apply the law.

Just imagine the problems the like of Georgia, Romania and Japan must have, given that they can neither understand nor speak English.