Weekend referees 25-28 May

2 Comments

1. This is not a comment for publication but is addressed to the referees. A few referee decisions in the Waratahs V Highlanders game were once again troubling – serving to emphasise that the selection of local referees breaches the highly important adage “justice must not only be done but manifestly appear to be done” (which is does not when local refs are used).I feel a sense of futility in bringing this to your attention. My sense is that most of you have not had much exposure to a “justice culture”. But numerous spectators do have such a culture.
   There were a number of sloppy decisions by (the NZ referee) Mr O’Keefein this match – the cumulative effect of which may be argued to have broken the Waratahs and determined the match outcome. Whilst I am confident of my view in this respect (as an ex international and “student”of the game) those views were largely supported on Fox by Justin Marshall and the NZ Fox commentary team. One flagrant example was very poor indeed. When Mr O’Keefe found himself so poorly positioned as to cause Phipps to withhold his first preparation to pass to Foley and then to pass too late for Foley to avoid a knock down of his kick, it was clear that Mr O’Keefe should have had the acuity to blow a stoppage and award a scrum to the Waratahs (with suitable apologies to the Waratahs). This would certainly have happened had Phipps had the presence of mind to put a pass straight into the stomach of Mr O’Keefe. And it was a pity that O’Keefe was not given the lesson of having this happen. Instead… a highly dubious try was awarded – so dubious in fact that when the Waratahs scored a few instants later the Fox NZ team opined that it was “justice”. There was a number of borderline or incorrect decisions in this game and most of them clearly penalised the Waratahs. In my view you should run the tape and have a very hard look at the game – complete with listening to the NZ Fox commentary; and have the gumption to acknowledge the shortcomings after doing so. Angus Gardiner was overheard last week saying “I dont want this game too be about me” I felt that Mr O’Keefe was quite happy for this game to be about him. Which brings me to a much more important issue. Just what is the prime motive in the referees having a website all about themselves? In the end why should referees be any different from judges – better placed to do their job by being as low key and un-self-promoting as possible. Can you imagine a website for judges of the higher law courts in the Sanzar countries – so that they can talk about themselves. In line with the today’s culture I fear there may be quite a bit of self promotion in all this – in guise of educating the public.

   • We’ve had this discussion before – we don’t appoint the referees or have any influence over them. Sanzaar are happy with their neutrality point but Im sure would consider the views of such esteemed correspondents if you were to speak to them. Perhaps you’d need to work through a costings proposal as to how they would fund a completely neutral approach.

     As for your dig at this site, you are the one who keeps coming back and contributing (you are most welcome), so you must find it of some value – even if it is just to get things off your chest. We have many readers who come for different reasons – news, advice, guidance, learning. There’s nothing self promoting about it. If you don’t like it, Im sure there are other websites you could be visiting. We hope you continue to keep visiting and contributing to the debate.

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