Time perhaps to divorce the whinging Aussies
It is probably fair to say that there is a shortage of topclass referees involved in Super Rugby across the board and that has been the case for a couple of years now, but the so-called study coming out of Australia and accusing South African officials of grossly favouring their own teams in matches played over here is a very superficial analysis.
In fact, it is obviously a desperate attempt to try and divert attention from the parlous state Australian rugby finds itself in at the moment. Not only have they hardly been a hotbed for good referees for many years now, but their organisation is facing a mountain of financial challenges and their teams (the Brumbies aside) have made a dreadful start to Super Rugby.
The Brumbies are top of the Australian Conference having lost just a single game in the first four rounds, but between them, the Reds, Rebels and Waratahs have won a paltry five out of 13 matches.
It is nothing short of a disgrace though that Sanzaar, a lame duck organisation if ever there was one, have allowed Australian rugby officials such as Melbourne Rebels CEO Baden Stephenson to basically accuse South African referees of cheating. “I do think as a collective group we should put some heat on Sanzaar about the ridiculous stats that have come out over the last 24 hours about hometown refereeing in South Africa. There is too much at stake for all of us and it is hard enough to win on the road. In my view, the integrity of the competition is turning into a joke,” Stephenson said this week.
Any coach questioning a referee’s performance gets fined by Sanzaar but they allow a sore loser CEO to call South African referees cheats without a hint of action being taken. One could bet a tidy sum that if Alfonso Meyer or Eduard Coetzee mentioned a
Ken Borland
critical word about officials they would receive a rapid sanction.
Nevertheless, one needs to examine whether there is a smidgen of truth in the Australian report, first published on the Green and Gold website (how dare they steal South Africa’s colours? Everyone knows Australia are Canary Yellow and Green!) which claims that over the past three years South African referees awarded 159 more penalties to local teams in matches against overseas opposition.
Even if the number is probably correct, vital context is glaringly absent, making it a rather mediocre piece of analysis. The reason for the inflated numbers is simply that South African referees officiate over here way more often than overseas officials. In fact, about two-thirds of all Super Rugby games in South Africa will be presided over by local referees.
There are two-fold reasons for this: firstly, it’s an awful long way for overseas refs to travel in terms of cost and fatigue, and the Super Rugby teams themselves said they preferred the best referees to be appointed and not to have neutral officials more than a decade ago.
Across all professional rugby competitions globally, be they at Test, provincial or club level, an average of 2.2 more penalties per game are awarded to the home side. South African referees at home have given 3.3 penalties more per game to the local side, which is okay and easily explained by the popular use of rolling mauls and overseas teams struggling to cope with them. Super Rugby games over here are more wars of attrition, It’s probably only the Lions who will try and run overseas teams off their feet.
Personally, the sooner South African rugby is rid of the whinging Australians the better. For Australians to point fingers at South African referees is incredibly ironic given the shockers they have inflicted on the game in the form of people such as George Ayoub, Angus Gardner and Peter Marshall.
It is fortunate that SA Rugby are not putting all their eggs in one basket and are increasingly looking northwards to Europe.
It is ridiculous that when South African teams are regularly skewered by the referees in Australia and New Zealand, any complaints are put down to sour grapes, but Sanzaar are willing to entertain allegations of cheating coming out of Australia, the land where sandpaper is considered legitimate cricket equipment and the national rugby coach denies video evidence of his players yanking the dreadlocks of Springbok opponents.