Matt Giteau has escaped a match ban after going after Steve Walsh for the manner in wich he officiated the Brumbies/Waratahs match.
Courtesy of Sport24
Sydney – Brumbies flyhalf Matt Giteau has been fined $4 600 after criticising the referee of a Super 14 tie against the Waratahs, the competition’s governing body said on Wednesday.
Giteau had said it was pointless for the Brumbies to turn up if Steve Walsh was retained for Saturday’s crunch match with the Reds in Canberra following the referee’s performance in last Saturday’s 19-12 Super 14 loss to the Waratahs.
Giteau’s comments were referred to SANZAR — South Africa, New Zealand and Australia Rugby — by the Australian Rugby Union for determination on whether they constituted a Code of Conduct breach, SANZAR said.
Sydney-based judicial officer Terry Willis heard evidence via a telephone hook-up with Giteau, who admitted the code breach.
Willis said when considering penalty he noted Giteau had played 86 Super Rugby matches and 76 Tests without any previous offences.
SANZAR said Giteau had offered to write a letter of apology to referee Walsh over the published comments
Lucky Jan…
As per usual this loser gets away with murder..
Winston, you can call it being biased but surely lighter punishments are handed out to our S14 partners than what our players normally receives for similar offences…
Blouste,that charge that he did on the great Fourie was totally unacceptable and really pissed me off.. Like I have said 100 times if Bakkies Botha charged that little twirp would it have been the same punishment.. I hope the thief Cooper takes his place,he has the ego of a small planet..
Gits should have got a week suspended. Not fair this. If that was a saffa or kiwi player that said that he would have got a week or two in the cooler.
I dont mind that he only pays a fine, it puts more attention on the refs and for a change they seem to be doing a little bit of something about some shocking reffing.
Dud decision: Giteau $5000 the poorer for telling it like it is
GREG GROWDEN
April 29, 2010
COMMENT
SANZAR got it right in deciding that Steve Walsh shouldn’t referee Saturday night’s Brumbies-Reds match but were wrong in forcing Matt Giteau to front its judiciary committee last night on a code of conduct charge.
Giteau was fined $5000 for making comments to a journalist about Walsh’s dreadful refereeing last weekend – comments many thought were perfectly justified, considering the despair the Brumbies felt after several of his decisions spoiled their chances of winning in Sydney.
Giteau was asked legitimate questions by a reporter on Monday, and he gave honest answers.
The conversation went:
Reporter: How are you guys going to be if Steve Walsh is refereeing on Saturday night?
Giteau: Mate, I don’t know if we’ll turn up. What’s the point?
Reporter: So you’re hoping he gets relegated then?
Giteau: Yeah, I think so. I think everyone is.
Earlier he was asked what he thought of Adam Ashley-Cooper’s try being disallowed. ”Like anyone that knows rugby, it was a try,” Giteau replied.
If SANZAR prefers censorship, fine. But if that is the case, it then has no alternative but to closely scrutinise comments yesterday by its referees’ boss, Lyndon Bray, and hit him with a code of conduct charge as well.
Bray went on New Zealand radio to justify why Walsh was pulled from the Brumbies-Reds match and replaced by Chris Pollock, and the subject soon turned to Giteau’s comments. At the time of this radio interview, it was widely known that Giteau was expected to face a SANZAR judiciary hearing.
Bray said he thought Giteau ”definitely needs to face a disciplinary hearing on the comments”. He added that Giteau had to be held ”accountable”, and that it would be ”nice” if Giteau was suspended at least for the Reds match.
Nice!!! These are not ”nice” or particularly smart comments before a SANZAR judicial hearing. They come across as a high-ranking official putting pressure on others within the organisation to make sure Giteau is penalised. For that, Bray must be pulled into line, especially as he also said that, in his opinion, the ”hammer” had to be brought down on Giteau taking an emotional approach when criticising Walsh.
As perplexing was the reasoning behind Walsh no longer being the referee at Canberra Stadium. According to Bray, Walsh’s demotion had more to do with concerns the game would turn into a circus if he was the referee, rather than a penalty for the numerous diabolical decisions he made last weekend, or the running battle he had all night with Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles.
”We have to look at the best interests of the game this weekend, as well as what’s in the best interests of Steve as a referee,” Bray said. ”It is very unfortunate the Brumbies have come out very publicly with those particular comments. They have made it very untenable for Steve to be able to work in that environment.”
So it was all the Brumbies fault. Who’s kidding who?
Bray then defended Walsh for disallowing Ashley-Cooper’s try for a ”double moment”.
If Bray seriously thinks Ashley-Cooper’s try wasn’t a try, it just proves why so many referees have got it wrong in the past, because such try attempts, which aren’t exactly uncommon, have regularly resulted in five points being awarded.
At least all this brouhaha has momentarily succeeded in diverting everyone’s attention to the real problem at the Brumbies – internal division form there being too many chiefs and not enough indians. Who knows – the Walsh debacle may see them band together again.
Gitau blasting the ref in the media just goes to show that Robbie Deans made the right call by not making him Vice Captain.
Robbie Deans enjoys making tough decisions and after hearing Giteau on TV and his response…Deans decision was very easy to make. He is not leadership material.
Leaders are not made just because of their excellent skills.
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