Twickenham factor alive and kicking

The "twickenham factor" so apparent during the recent internationals was proven alive and kicking at twickenham sevens today when England were handed victory over NZ by one of the most obscene refereeing blunders in living memory.

With NZ gone for all money with a deciding a try on full time, the referee called NZ back for a "forward pass" which video replays showed had clearly not only been passed backwards but travelled almost five meters backwards.

The referee then awarded a string of unfathomable penalties to England concluding with a simple penalty under the posts which was kicked be England.

The game had also featured a yellow card for NZ key play maker tim Mickelson who was sent off for effecting a tackle around the legs of an Englishman.

NZ had also been repeatedly penalised from almost every ruck.

The final penalty count being 14-1 in favour of England.

Will anyone have a chance at the rugby World Cup next year if this clear bias is allowed to continue?

Waiting for the match to upload the youtube so we can all analyse the bizarre forward pass call and some other oddities including penalising a team for holding up a player with the ball to create a maul.

Scramble, you're awfully familiar for a 'new' poster.

Well done England. A good win at HQ

Did you actually see it? That is the worst call I've seen since Wayne Barnes in 2007.

As a Welshman, I feel NZ were robbed today.

Seriously CHECK IT OUT.

Even the one eyed English sevens commentary team called it out as a howler.

I have checked it out. It was a poor decision and a mistake.

England roll on to a quarter vs France though. A good performance.

As a Welshman you can't have enjoyed the Wales/NZ game much

The Wales v NZ game showed just how dominant NZ are and for that I give them credit.

You can see from the relative score lines of Wales v England and NZ c Wales just how much of a helping hand England were given by that referee.

Just staggering how much he favoured England.

Looking good for a home RWC then. Especially the group stage.

Scramble, welcome to the forum LOL

How much do you suppose a referee pockets for a match like that?

Should an IRB review of such a shocking days work see them stripped of their match fee?

Do you suppose salary is the major source of income for a referee or do you suppose their are other forms of income?

Scramble(d)

I'm against Genetically Engineered Food...

Genetically modified anything is just wrong. Never let it near your mouth.

Or your keyboard.   

Does scrambled mean Generically re-Engineered? LOL

No one keen to address the real issue I see.

Scramble wrote:No one keen to address the real issue I see.

I'm not sure what your mechanically separated argument is really.

Integrity should be at the heart of sports administration, not fabricated fairy tales.

Scramble wrote:Integrity should be at the heart of sports administration, not fabricated fairy tales.

It should also be at the heart of forum discussion.

We've got our own Hans Christian Andersen right here.

And Grimm.

 

nathan wrote: 

Yup.

Scrambled eggs are glorious on a sunday morning, redolent of the halcyon days of Empire with kippers and a cup of BS.

Wow - the officials make one mistake (and it was a bad one) and suddenly we have insidious allegations of referees being biased towards England, and insinuations that the refs are taking backhanders.

Dangerous territory is that.

As a Welshman, what did you think of the 'high veldt factor' in Wales first test defeat in Bloemfontein on their 2008 tour of SA?

There were several howlers by the ref that clearly favoured SA on the day.

Oops! Wrong thread!

Hound of Harrow wrote:Wow - the officials make one mistake (and it was a bad one) and suddenly we have insidious allegations of referees being biased towards England, and insinuations that the refs are taking backhanders.

Dangerous territory is that.

As a Welshman, what did you think of the 'high veldt factor' in Wales first test defeat in Bloemfontein on their 2008 tour of SA?

There were several howlers by the ref that clearly favoured SA on the day.

Not sure it mattered anyhow, I mean it was a bit of a drubbing in the first test if I recall.

Ref makes a bad call against the away side and fans automatically say its home favouritism... Refs will make mistakes, that's a fact of life, you just hope the mistakes balance themselves out over the game,

Scratch wrote:Scrambled eggs are glorious on a sunday morning, redolent of the halcyon days of Empire with kippers and a cup of BS.

It's like a ghost from the past...

The thing is GE.. sorry Scramble, you got such a distinctive tone that u cant help but see it as you. I havnt been on here for a while so apologies if GE been banned and so posting under new name(GE is by far my fav poster btw. Sometimes bit wummish and one eyed but defo extremely knowledgeable and very witty IMO, u do great post sometimes mate.)

fa0019 wrote:

Hound of Harrow wrote:Wow - the officials make one mistake (and it was a bad one) and suddenly we have insidious allegations of referees being biased towards England, and insinuations that the refs are taking backhanders.

Dangerous territory is that.

As a Welshman, what did you think of the 'high veldt factor' in Wales first test defeat in Bloemfontein on their 2008 tour of SA?

There were several howlers by the ref that clearly favoured SA on the day.

Not sure it mattered anyhow, I mean it was a bit of a drubbing in the first test if I recall.

Ref makes a bad call against the away side and fans automatically say its home favouritism... Refs will make mistakes, that's a fact of life, you just hope the mistakes balance themselves out over the game,

43-17 fa. SA well worth the win on the day, but there were a few bad calls from the ref on the day. Not to mention the ref blocking a Welsh defender that let in SA for a try.

I'm just trying to fathom out how 'Welsh' this new guy is, and his knowledge of Wales' games and refereeing decisions in those games.

He's only really posted about England and NZ.

So how do we feel about the refereeing today? Wasn't much change for England in the first semi (Aus's first try was very harsh given the tackler has to release, and the handling of the end of the game was just wrong), and NZ gifted a try off a forward pass in the final.

Scramble has been rumbled and canned!

Scramble wrote:Did you actually see it? That is the worst call I've seen since Wayne Barnes in 2007.

As a Welshman, I feel NZ were robbed today.

Seriously CHECK IT OUT.

Even the one eyed English sevens commentary team called it out as a howler.

I thought refereeing foilbles were one ghost we'd exorcised. Mind you it's a grey area, this glorious sport we love. Some would say the empire was built upon it.

Scramble wrote:Integrity should be at the heart of sports administration, not fabricated fairy tales.

Integrity….bit of a credibility issue with that one i think 'Scramble'

I feel the force of a ghostly empire being built all in glorious grey.

It was as if a million accounts cried out and were suddenly silenced.

NZ,England, Wayne Barnes,2007... Not exactly Guy Incognito.

More of an undercover elephant than a secret squirrel

Barney McGrew did it wrote:More of an undercover elephant than a secret squirrel

Phil Vickery never looked so good