Officials must be accountable – but calling out integrity crosses the line
Rugby union cannot take the moral high ground over other sports but it does pride itself on respect, as much as that concept is being eroded in life and in society as a whole.
I would say that the Rassie Erasmus episode has been dealt with fairly. It is a pretty significant ban, which sends a clear message that this type of abuse is unacceptable.
People could argue that the judgment has taken too long, but it has eventually shown that this behaviour will not be tolerated. And quite rightly so.
Over my career, I had Test matches where I made mistakes. I am sure sometimes I was inconsistent and penalised one team more often than the other for the same offence. Those were simply performance issues. It was not me being biased or cheating. Referees are not like that. We get things wrong, for whatever reason, but what really hurts a referee is having their integrity called out. That is where the line is crossed.
I know Nic Berry very well. You could never question his integrity and his honesty. Of course, as referees, we have to be accountable by having conversations with coaches after games. We have to be able to say, “Yeah, I got that wrong” when it makes sense to do so.
There has to be clarity around how coaches and referees can speak about issues. But there has to be a time and a place, because it goes both ways. Officials need the opportunity to talk to coaches about questionable tactics as well.
My integrity was sometimes questioned by the public on social media, which is something you just have to rise above. Fortunately, I never had my impartiality questioned by coaches. They would criticise decisions in the press. Now and then, they had a valid point.
Steve Hansen and I would often chat straight after games. He would bring up something he did not think was right and I would explain myself. It usually ended up with him laughing and saying: “You’ve got a f------ answer for everything!”
I would be wary of allowing referees to do post-match interviews because, inevitably,
sometimes there are going to be decisions that cost a team the game.
After the Wales win over England in this year’s Six Nations, Joel Jutge, who is World Rugby’s head of match officials, came out and said that Pascal Gauzere got it wrong for awarding two tries for Wales. Since then, Pascal has retired. That was not because of his age or his ability.
Imagine sitting down in a press conference after the 2007 World Cup quarter-final and being able to ask Wayne Barnes: “How did you miss the forward pass that knocked out New Zealand?” I don’t think it can be open season on referees.
The referees should be able to go to their refereeing coach, look through each decision to see which are right, which are wrong and which are 50-50 calls. Then, if required, that manager can go to World Rugby and get verification before issuing a clarification on a big decision. Correct procedure is important because referees cannot go directly to coaches without being certain they are correct. They should have the backing of their referee manager and of World Rugby. If it was confirmed that one of my decisions was wrong, I would hope I would not mind. You cannot defend the indefensible.
Poor performances are something referees deal with the same as players. One common reason they happen is when a referee analyses one team more than the other. I will give you an example. I coach Craig Evans, who refereed England’s win over Tonga a fortnight ago. We spoke about making sure he was consistent with how he prepared for both teams, spending the same amount of time on Tonga as he did on England and not getting too hung up on individual players. If that happens, you can focus too much on one area. Then you might miss other things and leave yourself open to inconsistency. Craig was thorough and I thought he did a good job.
What has to happen now is two things. First, it has to be clear that Rassie’s behaviour was totally unacceptable and not part of our game. The second thing is that referees and coaches, in line with referee managers, are happy with a transparent feedback process. That way, hopefully, we never get here again.