NO CONSOLATION FOR OUR HEROES
Absence of apology as verdict proves too little too late for scarred Scotland
SO Australia benefit f rom an i ncorrect refereeing decision that lets them sneak into the World Cup semi-finals and the Aussie who runs World Rugby feels comfortable enough to make smart comments about the whole farce.
In any normal environment, this would be cause for some shock. Those in charge of elite rugby’s major business affairs, however, would be hard pressed to recognise normality. Truth be told, they’re hardly on nodding terms with logic, fairness or accountability, either.
Yesterday’s hastily- published findings into the Craig Joubert mistake at least admitted to what everyone granted the benefit of a replay could see. Namely, that Scotland had not committed the penalty offence that allowed the Wallabies to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
From within the corridors of power, though, there was no admission that the system that denied the referee a chance to review the incident — in this age when the Television Match Official is used for almost everything — needs to be reviewed itself.
Instead, we get bizarre comments about Joubert’s swift departure from the pitch, praise aplenty for referees in general and this one in particular — and a general sense that all is well in the world, so why don’t you just stop your whinging and go home like good little losers.
That there is such a lack of official sound and fury over the costly — to Scotland, at least — mistake by r epeat off ender Joubert in the dying moments of Sunday’s quarter- f i nal i s, as followers of the game and its old-fashioned politics will testify, merely to be expected.
It didn’t take long, in fact, for the entrenched guardians of this great game’s ideals to mobilise and counter-attack on behalf of the establishment, with words like ‘ hysterical’ being thrown at anyone who dared ask questions over a moment that will define careers for the next four years.
One former player even declared that criticising Joubert’s decision was tantamount to ‘an attack on the spirit of rugby’.
Hiding behind legal niceties, smugly pointing to a paragraph sub- clause t hat proves why Joubert couldn’t possibly have referred his decision to TMO, they conveniently forget the fact that he got the decision wrong.
At least World Rugby, formerly known as the IRB, was finally bounced i nto some kind of explanation yesterday.
Too little, much too late for the 31 broken- hearted pl ayers, assorted coaches, extensive support team and entire nation l eft f uming over not only an arbitrary video review system, but an institutionalised bias that seems to apportion benefit of the doubt according to jersey colour.
The silence from Murrayfield yesterday was surprising given the weight of support they were receiving from across the rugby world not only t o Joubert’s erroneous decision-making but also in the wake of the flippant response from the game’s figurehead.
When World Rugby chief executive officer Brett Gosper said of Joubert’s flying exit from the scene of his crime: ‘Maybe he was keen to get to the bathroom, who knows?’ he was widely criticised.
‘ It was a very vocal crowd,’ Gosper went on. ‘ I’m sure he sensed a bit of hostility and who knows how that affects behaviour? But he’s a superb referee and he has been for some time.’
Across the Channel, of course, the French would have laughed bitterly at that description of Joubert, their reaction to Scotland’s ire probably amounting to no more than a Gallic shrug and a blunt: ‘Why are you so surprised? We know all about Monsieur Joubert…’
Cast your mind back four years, to the 2011 Rugby World Cup Final, and you may j ust r ecall a demonstration of ‘non-refereeing’ condemned by one exalted former i nternational as ‘ a shameful, shameful performance’.
France’s players, furious that a number of infringements by the All Blacks were simply ignored, spoke out in no uncertain terms, with hooker Dimitri Szarzewski saying simply: ‘Mr Joubert was not brave. It was a World Cup Final. I wanted anted things to be fair. That was not the case.’
In standing accused of favouring the mor e established or influential nations when the pressure is on, Joubert hardly stands out among his brethren; rugby has an ingrained problem of perception, at the very least, on this front.
Even the Aussies, head coach Michael Cheika’s shock support for the referee notwithstanding, recognise that he did them a huge favour. One newspaper Down Under actually awarded Joubert their Man of the Match honour. By Aussie standards, that’s actually quite funny.
Wallabies legend Phil Cairns s picked up a less fatal butt equally dubious call by the ref earlier in the game, saying of Sean Maitland’s yellow card f or a deliberate knock- on: ‘ That is a tragedy. There has been some really, really poor work from TMOs and match officials.’
Perhaps former England and Lions player Stuart Barnes put it best when, addressing the chaotic scenes of a bouncing ball, a potential knock-on and the lack of common sense displayed, he said: ‘There is all sorts of nonsense about him referring to the TMO when it simply is not within the protocol of officials to check for anything but tries and foul play.
‘The greater problem is the utter absence of empathy on the part of Joubert.
‘The South African referee has made the error of his career and it has cost Scotland, quite possibly, a place in the semi-finals of the World Cup.’
No one here in Scotland doubts that it was a definitive moment. Perhaps only Joubert’s own mentor, f ellow South African official Tappe Henning, now in charge of the education and training of Scottish referees, might feel in the least bit conflicted.
The man himself was at a meeting for officials yesterday, no doubt enjoying the support of his peers.
Perhaps, in a quiet moment, Joubert might have reflected on the words he penned for Sunday’s match day programme, saying of his journey since the last World Cup: ‘I have spent the subsequent four years training the house down, doing all I can to put my best foot forward in 2015.
‘ In what we do as referees, experience can help you feel more comfortable in certain situations, but each Rugby World Cup is unique and special in its own right.’
Recognising the unique nature of the competition we can probably assume that Joubert feels for the team sent homeward to think again and again over the one refereeing blunder that cost them so dear.
Which, it seems, is more than you can say for the man whose governing body’s system of whistles, bells, checks and double- checks does not extend to preventing a gamechanging howler i n the dying moments of a life-changing game.