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SA officials harming our World Cup ref-sledging allowance

rugby28 May 2019 18:20| © SuperSport
By:Johan Coetzee
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SuperWrap - week 15, 2019

“I never comment on referees and I’m not going to break the habit of a lifetime for that prat,” said former Wallabies coach Ewan McKenzie once, much to the dismay - and amusement - of rugby fans the world over.

McKenzie was only half-right when he made that statement. He actually commented on referees a lot. But we didn’t care, we just loved hearing a ref called by his real name.

We wanted Angus Gardner to be called something real too after he robbed South Africa of a chance to snatch victory over England last November by ruling – after a good number of replays - that Owen Farrell’s front-on shoulder-charge on Andre Esterhuizen was perfectly legal.

Instead we had to settle for some sardonic comments from Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus as he reacted: “If it was all legal‚ and I haven’t had a good chance to look at the replay‚ then we should start tackling like that. It’s obviously very effective…”

Of course it was not legal, despite all the English protestations to the contrary.

In fact, it was so illegal that when World Rugby decided earlier this week to release new guidelines on how dangerous tackles should be sanctioned, Farrell’s attempt was used to explain what a shoulder charge is. In little over six months it went from Gardner’s celebrated “no penalty” to what it is now literally the textbook example of a yellow-card offence.

And it wasn’t funny, Rassie. At least not until you made the training video the following week.

But let’s not get side-tracked.

We also wanted Romain Poite to be called names when he red carded Bismarck du Plessis for what actually was a perfectly legal hit on Dan Carter in a Rugby Championship match between the Springboks and the All Blacks back in 2013.

We wanted a proper slight, but instead we had to settle for then-coach Heyneke Meyer’s drab: “The ref is always right.”

To injury he then added: "If you start making excuses for your team then they start to make excuses," as if that would quench our slur-thirst.

Nee man!

Complaining about referees is South Africa’s real national sport and we’ve had more than enough legitimate chances to do so over the years. South African teams are dealt with harshly quite often while opponents seem to be allowed to do as they please.

We groan vehemently whenever that happens and it frustrates us no end when our wails fall on unsympathetically deaf ears. We really need coaches to buy into our needs and join in (even if it means we have to all club in to pay the fines). But only our coaches. And only foreign referees.

We’d dearly love for foreign coaches to remain silent about our referees and their performances on local soil. Except we can’t honestly expect that from them anymore, not after what happened these last couple of weeks.

Marius Jonker’s forward pass ruling out of the Television Match Official’s box that denied the Crusaders a game-deciding try in the dying minutes of their match against the Stormers at Newlands was wrong, despite protestations to the contrary from the locally loyal half of Cape Town.

In fact, it was so wrong that just last week even the southern hemisphere’s famously over-protective governing body, Sanzaar, had to pry out of its shell for as long as it took to call a spade a hand-operated dirt-displacement device.

It boils the pip that rugby still gets adjudicating from television replays so wrong after all these years.

All other major sports had the standards of refereeing calls improved when adding video replays, yet rugby still regularly produces absolute howlers from their TMOs, and it just so happens that those howlers almost always favour the home side.

What Jonker did that afternoon was to knock down half the brick walls of our formerly humble abode only to replace it with window panes. The other half of our conversion to a full glass house was done by Egon Seconds and Rasta Rasivhenge.

Between the two of them they managed to find only six penalisable offences by the Lions in their last 240 minutes of rugby against overseas opposition at home in Johannesburg. Six! And this while the opposition teams were blown up 43 times.

Those 240 minutes saw, among other potential minefields, 460 rucks and 45 scrums. Through all of that - and considering rugby’s current laws and its various interpretations – is conceding an average of only two penalties a game even possible for a squad of hard rugby men operating on the edge of the laws?

Messrs Seconds and Rashivhenge may try and convince us of that, but first we’ll need to see that match-day squad-sized gap in Heaven’s choir.

No, they were biased, and the worst is that were seen being that in games that didn’t even matter that much. Save it for when it counts!

South African referees need to consider their fellow countrymen and get their house in order. We need them to apologise to our visitors and promise they won’t do it again for the rest of the year.

It is not that we care so much for the welfare of our opposition. Them losing here should happen anyway.

It’s just that in a World Cup year we don’t want to be in a position where we can’t legitimately lose our bowels when we get Bryce Lawrence-ed again.

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Let’s have a look at what happened elsewhere in the world of rugby this week.

Tries of the week:

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Best of social media:

It is only a race now that Richard Bands has retired...

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We really miss uncle William Smith on the Learning Channel to teach the kids basic physics...

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Was this tweeted during the Lions game or during the Stormers game?

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You sound surprised? Props would have shined like this all the time if they weren't so busy doing real work...

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UnPhiltered

Wallaby legend (and normally the Wrap’s favourite commentator), Phil Kearns, had an epic meltdown this week after his beloved Waratahs went down to a rampant Jaguares side on Saturday.

The usually tough as teak former hooker chose to not take it on the chin for once and - instead of blaming a referee or a player – argued that an entire team shouldn’t even exist.

Kearns claimed that the Argentina had "hoodwinked" governing body SANZAAR and had ended up not only with a strong Super Rugby team, but also a better chance at this year's World Cup.

"They're the national team," the 67-Test veteran told Fox Sports. "They shouldn't even be in the comp.

"This is a provincial competition. Have a provincial team in it -- that's what it's about. It's not about having national teams being in it."

Where were those complaints back when the Jaguares were still a guaranteed five log points at home, Phil?

Last Hurrah

Another Wallaby great, David Pocock, took the extraordinary step this week of announcing his Super Rugby retirement three weeks before the end of the regular season.

The 31-year old Brumbies flank has been bothered by a calf injury all season, and instead of trying to get back onto the playing field as soon as possible, he has decided to focus on the bigger picture.

His eyes are firmly set on one last hurrah with the Wallbies at this year’s World Cup.

"Personally, disappointed... I wasn't expecting it. It's just one of those things that you've got to deal with," Pocock told reporters in Canberra of the abrupt end to his 13 years of professional rugby in Australia.

"I think the best thing now is to take the pressure off to get it (the recovery process) right.

"To pull on the Wallabies jersey again is obviously my goal. It's a huge honour and something that I love doing. I'll be doing everything that I can to get myself right and get into the best shape I can.”

Here at the Wrap desk we wish him all of the best. We also wish ourselves a speedy recovery from the memories of a Bryce-primed Pocock at the 2011 World Cup.

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