Jonathan Kaplan
This weekend saw the finale of The Rugby Championship and we saw two very contrasting games. The All Blacks won the trophy… again. Deservedly.
The Pumas won their first ever fixture in this tournament, a historical moment and one they will never forget… I certainly won’t, but the highlight had to be the bromance in the coaches box after the game where their Latin exuberance, warmth and hot blooded nature got the better of some of them… Put it this way, there was lots of lovin!!
Rate the Ref
The Springboks finally beat the All Blacks after coming quite close over the past couple of years.
From a parochial SA viewpoint it was a great win. Even, I suspect from a neutrals point of view, it was good to see a team challenge the best team, and beat them. There wasn’t much to choose between the teams, and the respect between the players and coaching staff is evident for all to see.
It is a beautiful thing of the sport of rugby union and one which we should cherish, as it doesn’t permeate through all sporting codes!
The Boks dominated the first half, the All Blacks the second. In the end, the game came down to a decision by the TV producer to highlight a misdemeanor by Liam Messam on Schalk Burger, which all the officials missed in real time. After finding the clip, and then replaying it over and over, eventually the Television Match Officials decided it was worthy of review, and correctly awarded a penalty to the Boks, which Pat Lambie (who has oodles of BMT) converted to win the game.
The TMO himself seemed a bit confused by referring to the fact that he thought perhaps arms were used in the tackle which was hardly the point. It was a swinging arm and a dangerous tackle.
If you are a Bok supporter, you will be saying we deserved it, and how many times it happened against us.
The protocol and process will mean nothing. But there is an important point to make here. I doubt (very much) whether that clip would have been brought up on the screen by producers in Australia or New Zealand and replayed over and over.
Is it right that someone outside of the domain of the match officials can affect the outcome of a major test match? And how neutral is he? In the end, it was his alertness that drew the attention of the crowd to the high tackle, they got into it, the officials then decided to take a look, and the resultant penalty determined the outcome.
I thought Wayne Barnes had a decent match. He walks a lot. He talks a lot.
And I wasn’t that impressed when he penalized Jan Serfontein for not rolling away when he could not (unplayable was the right call) or Jannie du Plessis for side entry on the All Black line when his action had no influence on the play at all (he attempted a clean and missed his target) or the resets of scrums when Franks’ feet are so far back on the touch, that he is almost certainly hanging over the cliff (not supporting his own body weight) and the last penalty… A brave call! BUT, he let the game flow with the right amount of empathy and game management. He was even handed in his approach.
He is a superior communicator. And he is smart!
He showed his experience in this toughest of environments when the reffing in this tournament has been quite ordinary, and deserves credit for that (and he was excellent at my braai on Tuesday with his singing of “Bye bye miss American pie”. So much for those people who regularly say the Northern referees are not up to it!
Argentina vs Australia:
Argentina beat Australia 21 – 17 after being down 0 – 14. They worked hard for this win, and worked hard for each other in the fixture. Their carry was excellent and they seemed to get rewards when they were in the Australian half.
Their tries were well constructed and I am really happy for them that they have finally won a game. Hopefully they will become even more competitive in the years to come and win an away game or two.
Australia will bemoan the fact that they let slip a biggish lead, but the real story will perhaps be the 3 Yellow Cards that the Wallabies received on match day.
Last week I was singing Nigel Owens’ praises after the match at Newlands. He has really shot to the fore after the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand but I thought he was poor on Saturday.
He was strangely hesitant in his decision making, once even asking the Assistant Referee whether there were hands in, after he penalized Australia and had pulled his Cards out already. He then put the cards back in his pocket. What was the point?
Not so lucky was the Australian No 9, Nick Phipps, who received a Yellow Card for a brilliant piece of play where he was the tackler and didn’t infringe at all.
What should have been a turnover to Australia, resulted in a Yellow Card which was a disaster for the Wallabies who then conceded a penalty and a try in his absence. Not great!! They would have been spitting mad as that decision had huge consequences for this test match.
Towards the end of the fixture, with the game still in the balance, the referee stopped the game when Hooper attempted a charge down, was airborne and in the process fell on top of Sanchez, the kicker.
He was also carded (incorrectly, as there was little he could do once he was airborne). Argentina converted the penalty and wound the clock down to record a historical moment for them and the tournament.
My opinion of Nigel hasn’t changed.
To say he was poor would be an understatement, but I know from personal experience that we all have these days (I had my fair share), and he will bounce back. I do feel for the Wallabies though and I thought they deserved better.
The Currie Cup:
On the Currie Cup front, the Blue Bulls dominated the Pumas in Nelspruit, where Peyps (Jaco Peyper) had an excellent game.
They are back in the mix! The Free State Cheetahs were very stiff against WP, who somehow managed to hack through a loose ball and fall on it.
To be honest, they shouldn’t have had a prayer at that stage of the game. Sarel Pretorius had a brain fart by taking a quick throw when his team were in the ascendency, instead of slowing everything down and winding the clock down.
That was far too adventurous for that stage of the game and perhaps ended up costing them the game. I still think he is a champion though!
Griquas predictably smashed the EP Kings 45-25, as I thought they might. Quite simply, they are tougher and want it more.
It was a happy and sad night for Jacques Botes, the most capped player in the history of the Currie Cup.
It was perhaps his last home game and he was given a rousing send-off by the crowd and by his fellow team mates. He is a model professional and a genuinely good guy.
He made a huge contribution to the game and earned his respect from teammates and opponents alike. He will be remembered as a workhorse who had an uncanny knack of appearing at the right place at the right time, scoring an inordinate amount of tries for a loose forward!
I thought Pro Legoate had a tough time on the night.
He looked ill at ease and flustered and most of the calls appeared to go the way of the home team.
The decision to card Derick Minnie with about 14 minutes to go was completely inaccurate as he complied totally with law.
Pro could not have seen the incident clearly and the net result was that the Golden Lions were reduced to 14 players for the remainder of the game, barring the last 2 minutes. I feel for Pro as he is one of the genuinely good guys on the circuit, but that effort simply is not enough at this level.
The Rugby Championship referee wrap up:
I have had a good look at the Referees in The Rugby Championship and think they will concede that there is much room for growth, even the best of them had an off day, so I will say the alarm bells are ringing, but not sure if anyone is listening… Yet!
My top 3 performances were :
- Nigel Owens – South Africa vs Australia at Newlands
- Jerome Garces – New Zealand vs South Africa in Wellington
- Craig Joubert – Argentina vs New Zealand in Buenos Aires
- I thought Gauzere (New Zealand vs Argentina), Clancy (Australia vs South Africa) and Owens (Argentina vs Australia) had off days.
Is it not time for a revamp of the system to help these moments where referees are not having good days at the office?
Bought the Mitch book at the airport, looking forward to getting stuck into it.
See the other sites are already cherry picking certain incidents and chapters, so will give those a miss and rather read the whole book before forming an opinion.
@ nortie:
You don’t get it do you .
The referee decided the outcome of the game.
In both cases.
Crilkey you are hard work.
My point is that this has been happening in New Zealand for ages and you have NEVER said a word about it.
Now suddenly it’s the beginning of the end.
😆
@ nortie:
I find it extremely difficult to see your point of view. the producer did not shoulder schalk in the face h didnt give the penalty and he didnt kick a 55m penalty… it was the RIGHT result.
If anything I hope this sets the president for good refereeing, ooohhhh the humanity!
@ MacroBlouBul:
Surely if the producer didn’t continue showing the incident over and over on the big screen the ref wouldn’t have given the penalty?
The ref and assistant refs either didn’t see the transgression or saw it and deemed it innocuous and not serious enough to warrant a penalty or a TMO referral before the intervention of the producer
Anyways, I’m out, taking off soon, Cape Town here I come.
Let’s agree to disagree, civilly if possible 😀
also hope this sets a president that referees penalise shoulder charges from all black players more.
While we get penalised heavily for good legal tackles (vermeulen australia, bjsmarck nz)
@ nortie:
Safe travels
@ gunther:
@ MacroBlouBul:
nortie just tries too hard … to be empathetic & even-handed (except when it comes to Les Bleus, Los Pumas & the EP/Southern Kings 😀 ),
& in the process comes across rather contrived.
nortie will be nortie … 🙂
@ Angostura:
Indeed 😆
Forever Nortemo
Hodor.
“Hodor”.
This is the last thing I have to say on this matter.
If the only people here who thought I had a point were, Ashley, Nortie, Hondo, Nick, Jonathan (and possibly shooter).
Then I could not have been in better company.
Hodor has spoken for the first and last time.
😉
Hey Nortie,
Did the pilot do a flyover Ellis Park?
We want the Match Officials to make correct decisions right? Yes, definately YES!
Was Liam Messam guilty of a high and dangerous tackle? Yes!
Was the right decision reached on Saturday? Yes!
I am ALL for technology to be used wide… and even wider, TV footage does not lie! I have been asking for the use of more technology for a very long time.
If it goes against my team… no problem!
… and as far as I’m concerned, that’s where it rests.. the decision was RIGHT!
192 @ cane:
Rather embarrassing rant and whinge you had yesterday, friend. I would be so embarrassed if I were you today, it is’nt even funny!
Partizan crowds happen the world over, including here in SA, there in New Zealand… hell just have a look at footage of the Pumas / Wallabies Test over this past weekend to have a look at a partizan crowd… phweeew.
The idea of Big Screen TV’s at stadia, is exactly geared (all over the world), to grant the stadium goer an extra look at incidents & highlites of what just happenned on the field, and greatly enhances ANY stadium experience.
The players and captain has the right, in fact obligation, to draw the referee’s attention to incidents and those incidents certainly does not exclude acts of foul play.
The IRB sanctions, in fact has elaborated on the referee’s ability to judge incidents, by letting him look at the Big Screen and make up his mind on the incident… nothing else sinister happened on Saturday.
I am with UFO on this one, 110%.
The whinge you had… well… the less said about it, the better!
Voice of reason from Tony Johnson who echoes much of the previously reported comments, sentiment & spirit of the great All Blacks’ team and their coaching staff (who were gracious in defeat):
http://www.supersport.com/rugby/blogs/tony-johnson/Its_a_privilege_to_watch_the_best_in_the_world
The more I think about it the more I believe that Messam went in with that malicious intent with the sole aim of getting a violent reaction from Burger in the hope of getting a penalty his way.
We all know Schalk’s history & how he was supposedly “targeted” by referees worldwide and hats off to him for not retaliating.
And Messam?
Sad to say, he went down a tad in my book.
P.S. Here’s Schalk in the dressing room waiting for the Boeing to fly over
Interesting thing on the Jonathan Kaplan articles we’ve now had on here at Rugby-Talk.com…
I have had to make MANY, MANY corrections on these articles, Kaplan makes many grammatical errors (far too many), he also makes simple spelling mistakes, forgets to capitalize names and surnames and his prolific use of abbreviations of Country names (ie. Aus, NZ, SA, Arg) and player names is irritating to the extreme… of course it’s quite OK to use those sparingly, at the right places.
A number of his sentences does not even constitute complete sentences in the English language.
I’m not saying Rugby-Talk.com’s articles are always spot-on and polished, but hell before one publishes stuff to everybody in the world, at least you make sure, as far as your general abilities go, that it is as correct as possible. One is also often blind to your own mistakes, even when proof-reading it for the last time.
Kindly urge us to change things, when you see glaring mistakes… it happens… and we will correct it, so we can be even prouder of what we put out there for all to see.
Authors, if you read this… when you copy and paste or come up with original material… read the thing over, please, before you press SUBMIT!
195 @ Angostura:
Very good Article… respect to Tony Johnson!
Belated congrats to the Boks on a great win on Saturday. It was a very nice game to watch where I was at Midgard, outside Windhoek.
On the interference by the TV-producer in the awarding of the last penalty. There was some negative reaction in SA when Vernon Philander was sanctioned after a TV-producer showed clips of apparent wrongdoing by him to the umpires during a break. So, I can understand where the Kiwis are coming from.
I just hope that we will be adult enough to accept something similar from an overseas TV-producer with more maturity but I somehow doubt that. Too many people are now pointing to the Eden Park incident last year. For all of a sudden it seems that two wrongs now do make a right. They screwed us over last year (with the sending off of Bissie) so if they now feel that we’ve screwed them over with the help of a TV-producer, then it is all OK.
Just wait for the howls of indignation when the Boks get the short end o the stick again in future. 😉
197 @ grootblousmile:
Scorpio is not as fastidious as Virgo 😆
200 @ Angostura:
Yeah, Virgos, like myself, tend to be painfully perfectionist in our outlook and behaviour… even pedantic at times!
@ Nama:
Ball tampering in cricket is as disgraceful as is dangerous tackling in rugby.
What is wrong with people who question the use of technology to combat such unacceptable conduct?
If you want to ball tamper or coconut shy you must learn & accept the corollary that “cowboys don’t cry” / “if you live by the sword, you die by the sword”.
Viva Technology – let the truth out & punish the wrongdoers …
I suppose I better set up SuperBru Pools for the HSBC Sevens World Series (which starts this Saturday.. as well as for the End Of Year Tours (November Internationals).
Time to register for the Sevens is already very limited!
@ Angostura:
“What is wrong with people who question the use of technology to combat such unacceptable conduct?”
It is not the use of the technology that is the problem. It is the “who” that uses it that can become a problem.
Any sport has match official who are appointed to govern the game according to the rules/laws of that game. At this stage, TV-producers/camera man etc are not part of that officialdom. We are starting to play a dangerous game if we give them the “right” to influence refereeing/umpiring decisions just because they are in charge of the technology that broadcast the game to a wider audience.
Caution is indeed needed here.
nama @ 204
well said
@ Nama:
Two wrongs does not make a right, but what happened at Ellis Park was not an wrong, referee decision. The Eden Park was brought up because Cane implies that NZ crowds are godly and do not influence the ref.
If this happens in Australia and we see an incident where Eben headbutts someone that has been brought up on the big screen, who are we to claim, “the ref did not see it, so it did not happen”?
If anything, this incident should allow the TMO more control and a clear line of communication to the referee
I was outside the country and did not watch the game and have also not seen the clip of the incident as yet.
But in general I have to agree with Kaplan that it cannot be right that TV producers who are most likely biased can effect the outcome of a major test match. The obvious problem is that they are in a position to replay only those incidents that they wish to replay or WANT to bring to the officials attention and that can only be to the advantage of “their favourite team” on the day ( it comes down to one team being “policed” more than the other team on the day).
What is the answer?
Perhaps neutral tv producers who are also trained as rugby refs?
@ robzim:
Skip to 1:10
@ robzim:
Eden Park last year proved that we don’t always have competent rugby refs to start with.
There will ALWAYS be some variable, but the only judgement that matters is number 1 on the field.
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