World cup refs thread

[blackcanelion]

I have no doubt the refs will cause a lot of discussion over the next six weeks. This thread is dedicated to them. I suggest:

1: Keep it simple
2: Keep it brief

To start it rolling here's my thoughts on Clancy (NZ vs Tonga)

I'm not sure what to make of him. My feeling during the game was he had a mixed bag, but I need to watch the game again.

I think he should have made players stay on their feet more and in particular penalised players from bridging (supporting their bodyweight). I think this would have made the rucks competative and IMO made for better rugby. Instead he let the ball be sealed.

If he thought the AB's were continually collapsing the scrum he should have at least warned them and potentially yellow carded a prop. I suspect he was guessing.

As an AB's fan, we were yet again on the wrong side of the penalty count. I'd like to know why this is. We've only been in the positive twice out of 20 games under the current interpretations (and the lowest percentage in major countries).

Any they my thoughts. What do you think?

[Pot Hale]

For a no-holds barred opinion on the ref and all NH officials and the participating teams and those who play their rugby in the NH, Spiro Zavos is your only man"

"Tonga gave the All Blacks the sort of match that, say, Scotland and Ireland used to give New Zealand and Australia when skills were replaced with ferocity on and off the ball.

Most of the Tongans play in Europe and they brought the northern hemisphere spoiling, barging, flopping in rucks and mauls to kill the ball style to the match."

"If they play like they did against the All Blacks, Tonga will give France a bit of a hurry-up in their match in Wellington towards the end of the pool rounds. Unfortunately for them, the referee for this match is Steve Walsh who is sympathetic to the running game and not hostile to it the way referee George Clancy was on Friday night."

"the All Blacks were penalised 12 times to 3, a bizarre count given the fact that they were superior in the set pieces and in the ruck and mauls.

Several of the penalties were given against them when they had possession and were about to score a try. One of the penalties was for obstruction when a beautiful try was scored and an All Black was taken out of the line by a Tongan defender.

This ruling by Clancy was almost as bizarre as his now infamous amendment to the TMO protocols that denied the All Blacks a try in their last Test against the Sringboks."

"Paddy O’Brien, the IRB boss of referees, now has to explain to the rugby public why Clancy was given the crucial opening match of the 2011 RWC tournament.

Why wasn’t a superior referee like Craig Joubert, Steve Walsh, or if he wanted a northern hemisphere referee, Wayne Barnes, given the job?

Then O’Brien should apologise to the rugby public for inflicting Clancy on the viewers, at the ground (paying very high prices) and around the world, an estimated audience in the many hundreds of millions. Then he should sack Clancy from the tournament.

The reason for this is that he had no idea about the scrums and he refereed in a way that rewarded the negative style of rugby the IRB said it was determined to stop after the boring final of the 2007 RWC."

“The match itself may well be an anti-climax after all this terrific build-up.”

And referee George Clancy, unfortunately, made this observation come true. Get rid of him, I say."

[emack2]

Clancy did exactly what he was told be strict,he was on the All Blacks they were given nothing.
Tonga got away with murder at the Breakdowns,and were offside most of the game.In the passage of play leading to the try a Tongan was at least 5 yards offside .
The Scrums leading to try,McCaw was twice popped up,and was protesting to Clancy about it.Well done the Front Row Mafia,and well done Tonga first rule off Rugby play the REF.If you get away with it lucky you!!!

[Taylorman]

Pot Hale I think you have just aligned yourself with the GG who will find his own views on the SA game being confirmed. Wait for it....

[blackcanelion]

just out of interests sake here are some stats on the number of games teams have come out on the right side of the ref (i.e less penalised than the opposition) since the current interpretations came in.

Argentina 14%
Australia 45%
England 50%
France 67%
Ireland 53%
Italy 58%
New Zealand 11%
Scotland 67%
South Africa 67%
Wales 33%

The data's from either scrum.com or sareferees.com, and some minor games didn't have any information. Buts it's probably ok for the top six world ranked sides (NZ, Aus, SA, Fra, Eng, Ire).

Assuming I haven't made any mistakes (I haven't double checked it). There's a pretty big difference between NZ and most countries. This doesn't include last nights game by the way.

If you look at the times teams are penalised significantly more or less than the opposition (e.g. a gap of more than 4 penalties in a match). NZ is still at, or near, the bottom.

[HammerofThunor]

That surprises mean. I've always felt NZ were very good at playing to the refs' interpretations. And that England were bad at it. I guess that shows (again) that you shouldn't rely on anecdotal evidence.

I'm just watching Fiji v Namibia with Owens. Doing his usually thing of ignoring forward passes and knock-ons that aren't too obvious and part of open play.

[dubh_linn]

I really hope clancy and walsh dont get any knock out games....how clancy never gave a yellow card yesterday was mystifying...walsh imo is not a good ref i have seen him give some appalling performances notably in 6n and lions tour ...hope he doesnt adversely affect any games this world cup.

[Biltong]

As the OP said, keep it brief.

I don't like Steve Walsh.

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater]

"Paddy O’Brien, the IRB boss of referees, now has to explain to the rugby public why Clancy was given the crucial opening match of the 2011 RWC tournament.

Why wasn’t a superior referee like Craig Joubert, Steve Walsh, or if he wanted a northern hemisphere referee, Wayne Barnes, given the job?"

Steve Walsh a superior referee?

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

"Paddy O’Brien, the IRB boss of referees, now has to explain to the rugby public why Clancy was given the crucial opening match of the 2011 RWC tournament.

Why wasn’t a superior referee like Craig Joubert, Steve Walsh, or if he wanted a northern hemisphere referee, Wayne Barnes, given the job?"

Steve Walsh a superior referee?

Compared to Clancy, Bryce "son of Keith" Lawrence and Stu Dickinson, yes. Though he's still barely fit to shine Joubert's boots.

[munkian]

Nigel Davies - everyone else

[ML]

That surprises mean. I've always felt NZ were very good at playing to the refs' interpretations. And that England were bad at it. I guess that shows (again) that you shouldn't rely on anecdotal evidence.

I'm just watching Fiji v Namibia with Owens. Doing his usually thing of ignoring forward passes and knock-ons that aren't too obvious and part of open play.

I think Owens did a really good job today. Yes, he ignored minor infractions, but he was consistent and if he had blown up for every offence, he would have destroyed the game and the penalty count would have been in the hundreds!

As a result of his leniance, we had a fast, open attractive game to watch and the players were able to display their talents. Surely that is what we should be looking for from a referee in the WC?

[munkian]

I meant Owens !

[Guest]

Owens isn't a bad ref. Not the best, but certaintly not the worst.

He does have the most annoying voice though, another high-pitched whine like JD.

[ML]

Owens isn't a bad ref. Not the best, but certaintly not the worst.

He does have the most annoying voice though, another high-pitched whine like JD.

A little like yours I imagine from the tone of most of your posts.

WTF has that got to do with anything?

[munkian]

Don't worry , English girls love Welsh accents, can't blame him for being bitter

[Guest]

ML, it was only a jokey remark, old fruit

I stand by the statement though, he does have a high-pitched, whiney voice. I'm sure there are plenty of irrational things that annoy you too.

[Sponsored content]