Highlanders get it wrong to bag ref

OPINION: Highlanders coach Tony Brown hung referee Angus Gardner out to dry after watching his side lose to the Crusaders in almost unplayable conditions in Christchurch last Saturday.

Brown took issue with Gardner’s decision to give Liam Squire a yellow card for a tackle on Crusaders five-eighth Richie Mo’unga early in the first half.

‘‘Pretty weak,’’ was Brown’s response when asked about the decision post match. ‘‘Definitely not a yellow card. If they are giving yellow cards like that, it makes it tough to play the game, especially when you ask your players to be physical. He didn’t hit him high, he didn’t hurt him.’’ There are two issues here. First, Gardner was within his rights to issue a yellow card. Under World Rugby’s revised tackle guidelines issued in January Squire has clearly put himself in a position where a yellow card comes into the discussion. We’ll go through the detail shortly.

Second, criticism like this makes its harder to attract and keep good talent within the game. We know that criticism like this affects referees. One of the most most striking revelations this year came from former whistleblower Chris Pollock, who was criticised by Warren Gatland after the first Wallabies v British and Irish Lions test in 2013.

Pollock, now retired, told Stuff that the incident left such a sour taste that he still can’t bring himself to hang a signed Lions jersey up on his wall at home. Now, if you think that Super Rugby is so well off for refereeing talent that it can afford to push away referees such as Gardner, one of the best young officials in the world, you are dreaming.

To the Squire tackle. From Brown’s comments the implication is that the game has become a bit too soft.

He’s certainly entitled to hold those views as a coach, and as a player I can’t remember seeing a five-eighth who played tougher than Brown.

But when it comes to assessing Gardner’s decision on Squire, that view is neither here nor there. Gardner can only be judged based on how the laws of the game are written and from that point of view he was correct.

Let’s take a step back.

At the start of the year, rightly concerned about concussion, World Rugby introduced revised guidelines with the unambiguous aim of getting the tackle height lower.

It created two new categories of high tackle, reckless and accidental, in tandem with increased sanctions to deter players from going high.

The minimum sanction for a reckless tackle is a yellow card, and the minimum sanction for an accidental tackle is a penalty.

But the key part of the guideline for both tackles is stipulation that the sanction still applies even ‘‘if the tackle/ contact starts below the line of the shoulders’’.

In other words, you do not have to decapitate someone or knock them out to get a yellow card - you can hit them on the shoulders, then slip up. All that matters is that there was contact with some force.

It is hard to see Squire’s tackle as ‘accidental’. He lined up Mo’unga clearly with the intent of putting a shot on him.

It doesn’t matter that other players earlier in the season have escaped yellow cards for similar offences - all that proves is that the officials in those games got it wrong.

On Saturday, Gardner was not ‘weak’, he was strong. And it would be no injustice to see him get the Super Rugby final.