Refs scrumming down for each other
Isn't it funny how referees start behaving like an insular old-boys club whenever there's a bit of criticism against them. They draw the laager and start firing their muskets at anything that moves outside their circle.
I have heard South African refereeing boss Andre Watson's defence of his fellow whistlemen and I've also read Australian referees chief Peter Marshall's comments about the Eddie Jones saga.
What they say certainly makes good sense, but unfortunately - as they would say in a court of law - they are not telling the "whole truth".
Try as they might with well-worded proclamations to sugarcoat controversial incidents - and they will do well to remember that they are not the only people with access to the laws - the general public and media are not the idiots they may think we are.
Yes, there are some statistics floating out there suggesting that the new scrum law has reduced the number (or percentage) of resets when compared to the first three rounds of the competition in previous two years.
But the very same source of statistics (these are official SANZAR stats) also tell us that the number of penalties and free-kicks are up.
The fact is, the management of scrums by match officials at the moment is a mess, simply because some referees (note NOT ALL, just SOME) do not even follow the most basic of rules. Not to mention a host of other errors, such as sending the wrong people off the field.
If I had enough space I would have written a book about it, but I want to highlight the mistakes in just a few matches.
We first look at Brett Bowden (Australia) in the Lions versus Crusaders encounter and James Leckie (Australia) in the Sharks versus Highlanders match.
Note to Watson, Marshall and company: Go watch the videos of these matches, note how many times your match officials allow a prop to put his hand on the deck and not bind properly and then tell me again they did alright. They make a fuss about "proper binding", but a prop with his hands on the ground is not binding on anything' not to mention the fact that his head is now below his hips.
Added to this there is the little incident where Mr Bowden conveniently allowed Crusaders captain Corey Flynn to tell him how to referee the scrums and he duly obliged. The very next penalty went against the Lions, who were the dominant side throughout the first half.
Another incident that proves just how fallible these match officials are - despite all the protestations to the contrary - is New Zealand referee Chris Pollock's failure to penalised Bulls flank Anton Leonard for his dangerous tackle in the encounter with the Western Force last Friday.
Pollock waved play on, having stood no more than a couple of metres from the incident and with a full view of what was happening. It required Touch Judge Marius Jonker (South Africa) to step in and "advise" Pollock that a major transgression had taken place and a yellow card was required.
This brought the scorn of his compatriots upon Jonker, who was vilified in the media. As it is, Jonker was 100 percent spot on, Pollock was way out of line.
However, we haven't heard a thing about what action will be taken against Pollock ... if any.
What does this all tell us?
Like players, referees make many mistakes, mistakes that could influence the outcome of matches. And like players they also do many brilliant things.
However, players who mess up often get dropped. When the team for the next game is announced, the coach will tell you why a certain player is suddenly not there - he is either injured or dropped.
Teams that lose will undergo many changes as coaches search for winning combinations. Winning teams show very few changes. Sometimes coaches even criticise players in public.
Do referees get "dropped" for such shocking performances?
We don't know, because the "referees club" don't tell us these things. Yes, we do get a weekly list of appointments, but no mention is ever made of a referee being "removed" from active duty because of a poor performance.
Sorry, but until the referees organisations drop their "old boys club" mentality and open up their ratings of match officials to the general public, along with revealing what steps are being undertaken against under-performing officials, they will never have any real credibility ... at least not in my eyes!
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