Hansen: Give referees a break
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has a simple message — lay off the referees.
Rather than the captivating onfield action providing the early World Cup talking points, the tournament in Japan is unfortunately being dominated by a spate of controversial decisions and non-decisions.
Lengthy suspensions have been handed out as a direct result of a crackdown on any contact with the head but there has also been a lack of consistency, with England’s Piers Francis escaping sanction for his high shot from the kickoff against the United States.
As Wales defeated Australia in their gripping pool match, the television match official interference from New Zealand’s Ben Skeen appeared to reach an all-time high, possibly as a result of all referees being put on notice.
The Wallabies were rightly furious with the decision by Skeen and Frenchman Romain Poite to penalise Samu Kerevi for his fend on Welsh playmaker Reece Patchell, who got his tackle technique badly wrong.
From coaches to players and punters, frustrations are widely evident about the overt attention referees are commanding.
World Rugby are perhaps complicit in inflaming the state of affairs after issuing a public statement which criticised the performance of their own officials after barely the first week of competition.
Hansen has gone the other way, offering a rare hand of support in the face of a concern that threatens to derail and completely overshadow this World Cup.
“All I’ll say about the tournament and the referees, and I’m not going to say any more, is they’re under a lot of pressure,” Hansen said.
“I talked before this tournament about how pressure can affect rugby teams, and referees are no different, so there’s no point everyone climbing into them because it’s not going to do anything other than put them under more pressure and it’s not going to fix the problem.”
Hansen also offered his thoughts on former Highlanders turned Japan coach Jamie Joseph, touted as the next All Blacks coach after guiding the host nation to their stunning upset victory over Ireland. Many have overlooked the savvy role Tony Brown has played alongside Joseph.
“Jamie Joseph is a very good coach. He didn’t become one overnight just because he coaches Japan to beat Ireland. I always find it amusing, you beat someone, then all of a sudden you’re a super coach.”
“Coaching is a lot more than just the results. Is he good enough to be an All Blacks coach one day? I think he is, yep.”
Asked if he could learn from the way Japan exploited Ireland’s vaunted rush defence and the prospect of meeting the hosts in the quarter-finals, Hansen said: “We’d be very silly if we didn’t because they did plenty for us to think about. Their speed of ball was great. Their line speed was awesome. Time after time, they just kept coming. They showed a lot of courage and intent.”