Referees come under fire on opening weekend

Australia wing Reece Hodge was cited on Sunday after a controversial tackle that left Fiji’s Peceli Yato concussed in their opening game at the Rugby World Cup.

Hodge will appear before an independent judicial committee and looks likely to be slapped with a ban after his high, noarms hit on Yato which stopped a certain try.

Fiji, who were leading 11-7 at the time, eventually lost the game 39-21 and Yato took no further part. The date of the hearing is yet to be announced.

SA sports scientist Ross Tucker, who helped draw up World Rugby’s framework to help referees decide how to sanction high shots, said it should have been an automatic red card.

And former top referee Jonathan Kaplan said he had “absolutely no idea” how Hodge avoided a red card.

“Going into this tournament, World Rugby have been very clear about contact with the head and what constitutes a red card under their new high tackle sanction framework,” Kaplan wrote in his column for Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

“With that in mind, I have absolutely no idea why Reece Hodge was not sent off for his tackle on Fiji’s Peceli Yato.”

The South African, who took charge of 70 Tests before retiring in 2013, said he was “not particularly surprised” that New Zealand referee Ben O’Keeffe failed to notice a type of incident that is “incredibly difficult to spot with absolute clarity live”.

But he was stunned at the lack of action against Hodge by English television match official Rowan Kitt.

Many pundits said the incident showed that players from major and smaller rugby nations are treated differently, arguing that Yato would have seen red if he had tackled Hodge in similar fashion. But Kaplan insisted: I can assure you that from the referees themselves, there is absolutely no difference in application between teams in tier one and tier two.”

Kitt was not alone in having his decisions questioned. Argentina coach Mario Ledesma said his team had been treated like a “small nation” by referee Angus Gardner after the Australian refused to award his side a last-gasp ruck penalty in an agonising 23-21 loss to France.

Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Kieran Read, speaking on field, accused referee Jerome Garces of a “pretty gutless” decision after the Frenchman decided a penalty alone was sufficient punishment for SA wing Makazole Mapimpi lying over the ball, having tackled Richie Mo’unga 5m short of the line. /

11-7 was the score in Fiji’s favour when Peceli Yato was forced out of the game by Australia’s Reece Hodge