No matter the outcome of tonight’s semi-final match and who eventually win this tournament this 2011 RWC will be remembered as the mother of all referee muck-ups.
If Australia and France where to play in the final I won’t even watch it because neither of those two teams deserve to be there. Roll that into a zoll Paddy O’Brien and smoke it.
A New Zealand victory over Aussie would ensure a pretty one-sided final which should see the All Blacks running away with it.
It will no doubt give the All Blacks immense satisfaction to annihilate the French a second time in this tournament on the back of the 2007 controversial quarter final loss but it will not be a match that will elicit great expectations or excitement around the rugby world.
The All Blacks should assemble an unassailable lead within the first 20 minutes in such a match up and apart from Kiwi supporters the rest of the world will lose interest and switch to other channels for something more interesting to watch.
It will therefore be a bit of a hollow victory -not that the kiwis will complain- due to the muck-ups made by referees in this tournament.
The sad thing about this tournament is that it’s the referees that will be remembered and not the rugby or rugby players. Every RWC tournament so far have produced super stars or players that were immortalized by the tournament itself; in 87 it was John Kirwan with his try against Italy and Blanco with his try that secured the French a place in the final and which took the Aussies out of the competition; in 95 it was Jonu Lomu; in 1991 it was David Campese; in 1999 it was Jannie de Beer with his 5 drop goals against England; in 2003 it was Johnny Wilkinson; in 2007 it was Victor Matfield and so forth.
At this stage no player stands out for the 2011 tournament. Instead two referees have immortalized themselves and will for ever be remembered due to their influences on the outcomes of two critical matches and the tournament. It makes one wonder about the power of the modern day referee. Apart from the Aussie/SA debacle and this red yard in last nights match we also have the sad sack Sapolu affair that sprang to life after the SA/Samoa match.
It has always been my belief that the referee should not be the centre of attention and that a characteristic of a good referee is that he/she is invisible.
Since the introduction of yellow/red cards and lately the new break down rule interpretation referees have become the main talking points after matches due to them being the main determinants of the outcome of matches.
I’ve seen to many matches ruined by red and yellow cards and lately by referee decision making at the breakdowns. Both these two areas of refereeing are in need of serious attention, in my opinion.
Referees seem to lose perspective and forget that rugby matches are supposed to be a contest and not a rugby rulebook demonstration or dvd lecture. Card trigger happy referees seem to be the norm today. Dishing out a card should be an absolute last resort after repeated offences and should be enforced only after consultation with both the two ‘touchies’ and the video ref in my opinion.
Surely, accidental offences which saw no real harm done to players involved should be weighed against the importance of the match situation. A red card in a match that will determine who play in the final of a RWC tournament should not even be on the cards so to speak. The message to referees at quarters, semi and finals matches of RWC tournaments should be that we want a contest no a display of referee power and a red or yellow card could mean the end of your referee career.
The breakdown rule and/or how its officiated need to be changed as well because mark my words the New Zealand/Australia semi-final tonight (with Pocock and McCaw playing) are at risk to also be ruined by referee decision making at the breakdown and consequently a card.
Sadly -no matter what happens tonight- it is already too late. New Zealand’s tournament and their possible second RWC win in 24 years has already been marred by referees.
It is a sad outcome to what should have been a magnificent tournament.
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said referee Alain Rolland “wrecked” Saturday’s Rugby World Cup semi-final
Jones, wearing a scarlet Wales rugby top, watched the action live at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, where 61,543 fans followed the game on a giant screen
He described the atmosphere at the Millennium Stadium as “fantastic”.
“I don’t think there is any other country in the world where you would get 60 000 fans turn up to watch the game on a big screen,” he said.
As much as I would hate it, is it not time to start looking at American Football style refereeing? I would hate the stop start, but something has to be done. Unfortunately technology is always going to show up the worst mistakes
It is in fact so easy to tip tackle a player , watch how close was it or Quade Cooper got one today. Although it always look terrible in slow motion it happens so fast and not always only the tacklers fault. Well i dont know a solution for this but i think NO player is stupid enough to plan it.
@ superBul:
If Quade did not press with his hand out to the ground, this tackle would have been head into the ground first. A found this a good tackle in full speed, but it could easily have turned out very dangerous if Quade did not save himself.
Take his hand on the ground and place it on the ball or on his chest and see the distance his head was from the ground, it would have been head first into the ground.
I feel that it must be a yellow during the game and then a review after the match plus a citing.
Users Online
Total 121 users including 0 member, 121 guests, 0 bot online
Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm