Paddy O'Brien to resign

I've heard from a reliable source that IRB chair of referees Paddy O'Brien is set to resign and will leave his post within the next 3 months or so.

Apparently he has copped a lot of flak from inside the organisation over the last while.

I don't know anything else on the subject to be honest but that would be quite a big deal he has seen rugby through some pretty substantial law changes.
What sort of affect will this have on the game?
Any ideas of who his replacement may end up being?

Pete - he has already resigned.

Anyway I would say that Andre Watson, Joel Jutge, Donal Courtney and Keith Lawrence are likely candidates.

Oh well! There was me thinking I had an inside scoop!

Who would you prefer out of that list? I'd be quite happy with Jutge I got to say

Stag
Please not Andre Watson - the issue that the refs and rule makers need to sort out is the scrum, and we all know (from the evidence in the RWC 03 final) that Watson doesn't have a clue what is going on there.

Always thought Jutge was a decent ref, although that doesn't necessarily mean he would be effective in this sort of role, where rugby politics and communication is probably as important as knowledge of the game.

Is your call of Jutge based on him as a referee or as a referee manager though?

Its a difficult one. I think South African refereeing has been excellent under Andre Watson - he has brought through some excellent referees and at one stage South Africa had the best referees in the world - Kaplan, Joubert, Jonker, M.Lawrence - he has been quick to criticise his own referees and others for not doing their job.

I know last year he instructed the SA selectors not to appoint referees to important games if they were guilty of failing to penalise sealing off.

This year he claimed that Bryce Lawrence should not referee top class test rugby again after his SA v Aus game claiming it was straw that broke camels back.

Please not Keith Lawrence. Do we really want Bryce having a job for life?

Dummy Half - don't base it on his role as a referee.

I think it is very silly to claim that because he had a bad day at scrums in 2003 that he should not get the job.

It is harder on pitch to make these calls.

Kiwireddevil wrote:Please not Keith Lawrence. Do we really want Bryce having a job for life?

+1

Kiwireddevil wrote:Please not Keith Lawrence. Do we really want Bryce having a job for life?

If it is Keith Lawrence based on his emails in the late nineties and his son refereeing every test match we play, he'll soon accomplish his life's goal.

"Teach those Jarpies a lesson"

Why not André Watson? He seems to be doing a very good job in South Africa...

Forgive my ignorance but if say a South African was given the position would the refereeing hq move from Ireland to SA?

No Yappy it will stay in Ireland

Cheers Stag, just curious.