I have no idea what SANZAR thought they were doing when they appointed Bryce Lawrence to the match between the Reds and the Crusaders at the weekend. Maybe they had taken a blow too many to the head. But the officiating of this game was an accident waiting to happen.
Mark Reason
Look at the chat forums before the game. They nearly all predicted a penalty count exactly along the lines of the one that transpired. The Reds were much the better side, yet they were hammered 17-7 on an horrendously one-sided evening of reffing. Sad to say Mr Lawrence was the difference between the teams and the sooner Super 15 brings back neutral refs, the better.
It was not just the Reds that Lawrence penalised, but the other New Zealand teams striving to get to the knockout stages. If the Reds had won by under 7 points, a likely result with equitable reffing, the Chiefs would now be 10 points clear of the Crusaders and the Highlanders, with the Hurricanes a further 3 behind. The Reds would also have a much better chance of chasing down the Brumbies. Instead Mr Lawrence has ruined another rugby weekend for many people.
It is not Mr Lawrence whom we should be annoyed with. The bloke does his best and anyone who has tried refereeing will know that is it an horrendously difficult job, particularly given the mess that the IRB, unduly swayed by the Southern Hemisphere, has made of the laws.
No, we should be irritated with the people in charge of the refs who continue to put him out there. Lawrence has no idea how to officiate the scrummage. He made a complete hash of the Ireland versus Australia Rugby World Cup pool game. The multiple errors he made with the scrummage were detailed to me at the time by a former international prop of neutral outlook. “Guessing” he called it and detailed why Lawrence was a very bad guesser.
At the time Robbie Deans said wryly: “We have to live with the ref’s calls and tonight we didn’t.” When Lawrence reffed the recent game between the Rebels and the Blues, the Rebels captain wondered how on earth he could award the Blues a try that came from breaking off a scrum that had gone through 90. That was the match when Lawrence said, slightly desperately, that it wasn’t easy for him out there either.
Too true. His reffing of the scrum at the weekend was again a joke. Ben Franks was allowed to put his hand on the ground (illegal) and bore in (illegal) and Corey Flynn was allowed to pop up like a piece of toast (illegal). But when the Reds counterparts did the same things they were pinged, presumably on the nonsensical ground that they are not so good at scrimmaging. Where does that end? We won’t penalise Sir Richie for knocking on the ball because he is so good. Sorry, Lawrence did that as well to Will Genia’s comical outrage.
Lawrence’s reffing of the breakdown is no better. The World Cup quarter-final between South Africa and Australia was another accident waiting to happen, because Lawrence had been just as negligent of the laws in creating a turgid Super 15 final. After the World Cup match former WC final ref Andre Watson said: “He didn’t referee the breakdown the way he was supposed to. He just didn’t step in.”
When he does step in, Lawrence is inconsistent. He penalised Digby Ioane for not releasing at the weekend, but the time frame was so short Lawrence was bound to then ping almost every other attacking player going to ground. Of course he didn’t. And the decisive penalty of the match left Liam Gill justly bewildered. All afternoon the tackler had been given rights to the ball on the ground, except this time. It was a ruck apparently. The IRB should be ashamed because the definition of a ruck is now so fuzzy as to be subjective guesswork.
Ewen Mckenzie, the Reds coach, said after the game: “We average 10 penalties a game and then cop 17-7. So it’s pretty hard to play at their end of the ground.” After the World Cup South Africa captain John Smit, one of the game’s most articulate and fair-minded men, said: “Bryce is not difficult to communicate with, he just doesn’t seem to listen very well. The one positive (of retirement) is that I won’t ever have to be reffed by him again.” The African outrage was so great that Lawrence has yet to take charge of a match involving a South African side this season.
A system that continues to put Lawrence out there despite all the justified criticism has to be rotten. There are on average over 7 successful penalty goals in the Super 15 matches that Lawrence has had charge of this season. Far too many of those calls are just plain wrong. It is hard not to suspect that Lyndon Bray, the man in charge of Sanzar’s refs, is too friendly to be objective about this.
Mr Lawrence influenced the World Cup to its detriment. He is now doing the same to the Super 15. If the refs’ boss won’t step in, then maybe Sky TV should. They pay the big money. I feel sorry for Mr Lawrence because he is out of his depth and there is absolutely no place for personal abuse in these discussions. But unfortunately his mistakes are continuing to affect a lot of people’s livelihoods and it is time to blow the whistle on the New Zealander and promote an up-and-comer.
This man needs to go back to ref school. He needs to spend some time in a scrum, and at the bottom of mauls and rucks to fully understand what goes on there. My question about him is this: Has he ever played rugby at any level and at anytime in his life?
Mr Lawrence is not the only bad egg…three refs in RSA swung the game around to help the local teams win…..bulls vs crusaders, bulls vs brumbies, cheetahs vs force.
walla @ 2
so its MR lawrence, isnt it?
wonder what you called him after the ireland/aus game
..
now you wouldve noticed that the author of the article asked for neutral refs, which most of us agree, is the way to go!!
..
talking about neutral refs, whats your opinion on the conference system (seeing that you guys are the ones benefitting from it at the moment)?
http://www.rugby-talk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Bryce-Lawrence-and-the-movies.jpg
4 @ Ashley:
Hehehe
That one is true though!
@ Wallabie.:
Wallie, the ref in the Cheetahs/Force game tried to blow fairly, but theForce players really tried his patience.
@ Lion4ever:
more like really tried to win it for the cheetahs but the Force made it tough for him so he had to be blatant about his bias.
@ Ashley:
Ash…my point is not to admonish the author but to highlight that Lawrence is not the only bad egg. Saffas are going over the top with Bryce yet not with equal measure of the rubbish we have seen from many other refs. There has been rubbish reffing from the republic so the republic cannot go for the jugular at other refs.
Neutral refs – very much so and it needs to be done very quickly. Many people are switching off their TV because of it.
@ Wallabie.:
YES , Yes,yes for neutral refs.
And even more so get the Laws right.
Scrumtime is a lottery.
@ Ashley:
No my friend RSA is benefitting from the expanded Super tournament…let take you back to the Super 12.
During the Super 12…did a south african teams win the tournament? why? I tell you our, aus, strength was in three franchises and we had immense depth. South africa teams struggled to win in aus…sometimes teams, sa team, boasted taking home 4 points from their aus and NZ tour.
Super 14
We saw the inclusion of the Force…draining the Brumbies and the Reds and the advent of a longer tournament meant these franchises had to dig deeper. yes the aussie sides do not have depth. BUT we started to see SAFFA sides winning in Aus because of the ‘weaker’ aussie sides. Guess what the bulls and stormer had extra points to take them into the top four. yes the bulls were well coached but there were gimme points in aus that the south african teams think because they were good but the opposition were getting ‘weaker’. we saw the bulls winning 3 x S14 tournaments yet struggle to win the tri nations.
S15 – now that the 4 aus sides started to get some balance and even the Force winning in RSA..ie beating the bulls a fifth side is created. this further depleted the aus conferences but there is something new rising up in aus. whilst we are not incredibly strong at franchise level there are many players putting their hands up for national selection. We just need to 3-4 players of international standard from each of the Force and Rebels to build on what we have from the other three to make a solid international side. Noticed how the RSA sides beat us at SUPER level but the boks have struggled in 7 out of 8 games against the wallabies.
YOU see – if it was not for the expanded tournament from the S12 the RSA sides would not feature. the conference systems and the qualification of one team from each conference system is the brainchild of SARU as they were worried that they had the viewership but not the attendance in the finals. Yes we are benefitting that we will get one team in the final…still early to tell as we are just passed halfway…..so will other conferences in other years. It will seem we will benefit now but what about next year.
Super rugby in Aus – the salary cap system is being introduced to ensure that good players are not kept in one union. Players will be forced to look for riches in other unions as SUPER clubs cannot afford to have more than three high profile players in a team. Quade is going to be forced to look elsewhere like the FORCE or go to league. This strategy is meant to strengthen the unions but in the short term some individuals will chase the dollar overseas. you will see a stronger conference in Aus in a couple of years…so enjoy your place in the sun…although at international level the wallabies depth will get stronger.
What of NZ
You won’t see it now but the ABs future is getting weaker…why? youngsters are turning to football! Clubs are having less youngster turning up to play because parents prefer the sons to play football. Football is on a big rise and given NZ participation in the RWC and not losing the youngsters are keen. The A-league is driving this.
10 @ Wallabie.:
Jeez, you can talk kak Walla!
Lol. Then i fit right in!
Howzit GBS?
Seriously though…just watch…people will talk about my email in a few years to come.
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