New Zealand’s top referee Bryce Lawrence will not travel to South Africa to officiate Super Rugby matches after he refereed the Springboks in their Rugby World Cup exit match.
rugbyweek
Lawrence was in control of the Rugby World Cup quarter final match between South Africa and Australia and won 11-9 by Australia.
South African rugby fans in their tens of thousands slammed Lawrence and blamed him for ending the Springboks reign as Rugby World Champions.
Facebook campaigns grew daily by tens of thousand and a number of New Zealanders who had the same name as Lawrence were forced to get their home phones switched off due to the number of threats over the phone.
Lawrence received threats over email and on Facebook and was heavily criticized by Springbok captain John Smit and former World Cup final referee Andre Watson of South Africa.
While Lawrence became public enemy number 1 in South Africa with rugby fans last year in New Zealand he won the NZRU Referee of the Year award for a fourth time.
Lawrence has been given his match schedule for the upcoming Super rugby series and Lawrence has revealed that he is not listed to control any games in the republic.
The referee said that while he wanted to travel to South Africa to deal with the criticism and get that over and done with, he understands that SANZAR have left him off the list for South Africa as they do not want any distractions from their tournament.
“In some ways I’d like to go and front it, but it’s not really my decision,” Lawrence told the New Zealand Herald.
SANZAR’s referees boss Lyndon Bray could not be reached by the NZ Herald but it is understood that his organisation are fearful that fans might take matters into their own hands for South Africa’s World cup quarter-final defeat.
In 2002 during a TriNations match in Durban between the Springboks and the All Blacks, South African rugby fan Piet van Zyl stormed on to the field and attacked referee David McHugh who had to retire with a dislocated shoulder.
That day there were 419 security officials at the match but Van Zyl managed to get on to the field and tackle McHugh to the ground and several Springboks and All Blacks had to drag him off McHugh including Richie McCaw who initially managed to get him to the ground.
SANZAR want to do as much as they can to prevent a similar or worse situation occurring in a rugby match.
During a Weekend Herald interview with Lawrence he revealed that he had been hurt by the fall out of the Springboks World cup exit and the way that he handled the match.
Lawrence accepts that his performance warranted criticism but refuses to accept that his performance was biased either way.
South African rugby fans have accused Lawrence of being involved in a conspiracy to knock South Africa out of the Rugby world cup in order to give New Zealand an easier route to the final.
“I got quite a few threats, people telling me if I came to South Africa to watch my back because they’d take me out,” Lawrence said.
“The thing that scared me most was that people would really believe I cheated deliberately and fixed the game.”
“The thing I pride myself on the most is that I’m up front and honest. ”
“For people to say I didn’t referee the breakdown very well, that didn’t hurt at all.”
In particular Lawrence’s handling of the breakdown came in for the most criticism and he now admits that he took the wrong approach into the game.
With the luxury of hindsight Lawrence says that he would have refereed the breakdown more “technically” which could have seen Wallaby flanker David Pocock conceding more penalties as well as winning more penalties given his dominance in the area that day.
A midnight Laugh
A drunk man who smelled like beer sat down on a subway next to a priest. The man’s tie was stained, his face was plastered with red lipstick, and a half-empty bottle of gin was sticking out of his torn coat pocket. He opened his newspaper and began reading.
After a few minutes the man turned to the priest and asked, “Say Father, what causes arthritis?”
The priest replies, “My Son, it’s caused by loose living, being with cheap, wicked women, too much alcohol, contempt for your fellow man, Sleeping around with prostitutes and lack of a bath.”
The drunk muttered in response, “Well, I’ll be damned, ” Then returned to his paper.
The priest, thinking about what he had said, nudged the man and apologised. “I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to come on so strong. How long have you had arthritis?”
The drunk answered, “I don’t have it, Father. I was just reading here that the Pope does.”
A quote from Pharside.UK :- http://www.pharside.co.uk/rugby/bryc…s-have-a-chat/
“It seems the NZRU have officially turned Rugby into a complete joke, to award someone who clearly is the worst referee in the IRB as Referee of the Year either doesn’t say much for the level of referees in New Zealand, or its a middle finger to the Rugby community. All in all its just an absolute embarrassment for themselves, they clearly aren’t a very bright bunch, they know how much controversy was sparked off following Bryce Lawrence’s performance during the World Cup with calls of match fixing, yet they go one step further to confirm all that with giving Bryce Lawrence an award for what seems as a thanks for handing them the World Cup, I mean seriously, are these people thick or what?”
The fact that this incompetent, and perhaps biased, referee is still allowed to officiate at any level of rugby is unbelievable.
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