Rassie explains his refereeing concerns

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has given a detailed explanation of the concerns about refereeing at the Rugby World Cup that were brought up by assistant coach Mzwandile Stick earlier in the week.

Stick said on Monday that he hoped the match officials at the World Cup “would treat all the teams equally and respect the game”. Stick made it clear he was making particular reference to a perception that referees tended to favour the All Blacks when it came to 50/50 calls the game equally and respect the game”.

It was a comment that obviously raised some interest in New Zealand and in the All Black camp so it was hardly a surprise when Kiwi journalists at the team announcement press conference on Wednesday asked him for clarification.

“I’d like to clarify that, it goes back to something I have experienced myself from the other side. When I was a player I was part of a Springbok team that enjoyed a 17 match unbeaten run and during that time we became the favourite team of not only the fans but everyone, and there becomes a kind of expectation that your team will win and be the stronger side.

“I think it was there again in 2009, when the Springboks (under John Smit) were the No 1 team in the world, the year they beat the British and Irish Lions and when they scored three wins against the All Blacks in easily winning that year’s Tri-Nations. You get to a point where it feels like the referees find it tough to penalise you.

“All the teams are so close currently, and everything is so close now, with a number of teams being capable of winning the World Cup. The gap has shrunk so much, but because New Zealand has been No 1 for so long, and in my view they are still No 1, there has for a long time been so much respect shown to them.

“I am not just talking about the other teams and players, and the fans, but also the referees. It did feel for a while like the 50/50 calls were going their way. As I say, it happened to us when we were No 1 in 2009. I think the time when there was a pre-conceived area that one team can’t beat another and that the one is very superior to the other is now gone.

“We saw that in the Bledisloe Cup. The Wallabies thrashed the All Blacks by a record score in Australia one week, then the next week it was the All Blacks who won by a big score and who were equally as dominant as the Wallabies had been the week before. Fortunately it feels to me that the referees are open-minded at present, and there isn’t that natural tendency to lean towards the side they think should be the dominant one. And that should be the case because the referees selected to officiate at the World Cup must be the best in the game.”

It is often forgotten that this isn’t Erasmus’ first World Cup as a coach. Apart from his experience as a player in the team that finished third under the coaching of Nick Mallett in 1999, Erasmus was an under-stated though crucially important member of Peter de Villiers’ management team in 2011. Erasmus performed the role of technical adviser at that World Cup, and his current right hand man Jacques Nienaber was there as defence coach.

Nienaber and Erasmus lived through the unedifying experience of having to depart the team hotel in Wellington just a matter of hours after their quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Australia, a match which was determined - let no-one deny it - not by the good play of the Wallabies but by one of the most incompetent refereeing performances (Bryce Lawrence) in the history of rugby.

Those who were part of that Bok squad will tell you that the team was building nicely as some of the technical and tactical adjustments brought in by Erasmus and Nienaber started to take effect, and yet the Lawrence “freak show”, as it will be remembered, changed all that.

Nienaber clearly hasn’t forgotten that experience and made it clear at the team announcement press conference that the desire not to relive that experience has played a bit of a part in the focus on the potential impact of the refereeing. But he’s also convinced that one thing has changed since 2011 - the referees are allowing a fair contest at the breakdowns, something that was not the case in that infamous quarterfinal eight years ago.

“Jeez what I remember about that game was that exits were my department and it was from a mistake at an exit that the Wallabies scored their try against us, because we didn’t control the ball at the breakdown,” recalled Nienaber.

“I can’t remember that game that clearly, maybe we don’t want to remember it, and I can’t even remember what the penalty count was. But I think (what is positive now) is that in the last couple of games we’ve had a fair contest, and that is what rugby is, a game of contests. As a defence coach you obviously like a good contest for possession.

“As Rassie has pointed out, we have the best referees at the World Cup. They have to be because they go through a rigorous and tough testing process to be here. All we can ask for is a fair contest at the breakdowns an if we get that we will be happy.”

Frenchman Jerome Garces will be taking the whistle for the Yokohama game which from a statistical veiwpoint is not good news for the Boks. Of the 13 times he has taken the whistle for a game involving the Springboks, the South Africans have only one four. He was also involved in the seismic loss to Japan at the 2015 World Cup, though only the most one-eyed and partisan Bok fan would blame him for that.

The good news though is that his most recent appearance with a whistle in a match featuring the Springboks was in the Rugby Championship decider in Salta last month. The Boks won that game comfortably and there were no issues with Garces. If anything, it might have appeared to be leaning to the Boks when it came to 50/50 calls, which if true perhaps underlines Erasmus’ initial point about a form team that has built up a reputation getting the momentum not just on the playing field but also of the flow from the referee.