Why referees are bad for rugby’s health
Damian McKenzie and Richie Mo’unga reminded us at the weekend of the extraordinary talents that so often blaze across New Zealand Rugby. They also reminded us, unwittingly, of the crude side of the game. Mo’unga in particular was a target for the wreckers who go about smashing up the revellers at the dance.
The game at large has recognised that the scourge of the high tackle is a problem that cannot continue. It is simply not OK that Mckenzie and Mo’unga and the rest of the magicians should confront a painful, fuggy, drooling middle-age when their glory days have passed. It is simply not OK to let sportspeople beat each other about the head.
But New Zealand, or at least large parts of the rugby community, are still struggling to come to terms with this concept. There are still too many high tackles in Super Rugby – it is scandalous just how infrequently they are being penalised.
In the four games involving Kiwi teams at the weekend just gone, I counted around 40 high or dangerous tackles (several from the opposition, particularly the Sunwolves). There was one yellow card and four penalties. That means about one in ten dangerous tackles is being penalised. So what on earth is going on?
J’accuse Lyndon Bray. Super Rugby’s game manager has consistently failed to bring the southern hemisphere’s premier competition up to northern standards of safety conscious officiating. Bray has appeared to be far more interested in the ‘product’ than in player welfare.
Before this season Bray said: ‘‘The [referees’] camp has allowed the Super Rugby refereeing team to continue to evolve its game plan and match management protocols, anchored by the key deliverable, ‘‘how do we as referees deliver a successful Super Rugby game?’’ Within this is the main objective to assist the very talented players in the tournament to play their best rugby.’’
When your mouth is full of words like protocol and key deliverable, you know that it has headed south and now resides somewhere near your backside. The main job of the referee is to referee fairly, accurately and safely. Super Rugby refs failed at all three of those ‘‘key deliverables’’ at the weekend.
Paul Williams is a promising young referee but he failed to protect the players in the game between the Blues and the Crusaders on Friday night. There were some horrendous tackles in the match and they went unnoticed and unpunished.
Most of the violence came from the Blues. In the fourth minute Patrick Tuipulotu, who otherwise had an outstanding game, came at Mo’unga. His tackle was high, reckless and his shoulder appeared to make contact with Mo’unga’s head. It looked like a red card offence. Not even a penalty was given.
This official negligence extended to TMO Shane McDermott who did not intervene once to call Williams’s attention to dangerous play. It is as if World Rugby’s belated but laudable attempts to make the game safer never happened.
Mo’unga was the victim of three attempted high shots and nothing was done. TJ Faiane was guilty of three high tackles in the second half and Tuipulotu and Parsons were out of order on more than one occasion. They too were not sanctioned.
It was also noticeable how different the tackle technique of the two teams was. The Crusaders got it badly wrong once when Oli Jager and Codie Taylor were upright and had a horrible clash of heads. But they have changed. They are consistently going far lower than in previous seasons.
The Blues have not managed to make the same progress. This is surely down to coaching. The cheerful Tana Umaga, not noted for sparing opponents’ heads during his playing days, is in charge of the Blues’ defence. Mark Jones, a former Wales wing, is in charge of the Crusaders defence.
Jones said before the season: ‘‘We’ve been working pretty hard on our tackle technique. And I think all the Super franchises would have been buying into that too. I think it’s a sensible approach to the game.’’
Most Super Rugby teams, with the exception of the Blues, have made significant improvements in their tackle height. Unfortunately the referees and officials have not.
The failure of Nic Berry and TMO Ian Smith to red card Sio Tomkinson was shocking. How on earth did they think there was no contact with the head of Tom Banks. Berry sent off