Refs only human
Flying Fijians head coach John McKee and captain Dominiko Waqaniburotu during a press conference ahead of this weekend’s RWC pool match against Australia in Sapporo, Japan.
WHEN William Webb Ellis invented rugby there were no referees to control games and it must have been just like a game of touch rugby that we witness every day around our neighbourhood and parks.
It depended on the honesty of players, though there would be disagreements but the game goes on in a friendly competitive nature. Sometimes there’s hot discussions on who’s right and who is wrong but they do not last long.
Whether you are right or wrong if someone taps the ball and gets the game going everything is forgotten and the purpose is to keep playing as the enjoyment and thrills overrides any slight discomfort one might get from being unfairly treated.
After a while, according to history, the captains took over as referees and they decided on who was wrong and who was right. Maybe that is the basis of why they select captains nowadays. Cool headed leaders with honesty and authority their best traits.
Competitive rugby as we know it began with a referee and the linesmen became touch judges and are now the second and third officials, holding as much power with their flags like the man with the whistle.
Now we also have a fourth official and then committees with their high and mighty names and in international games we have the television referees and judges.
But with all the technology and the highest qualified homo sapiens one can find with flaring nostrils as they blow on a tiny piece of hollowed metal, we still have mistakes.
Understandably so because to err is human and the rugby laws have it that the whistle is the final authority. The referee’s decision, right or wrong is final. That’s it, kapish, finito as they say in Beqa, sa kece.
You cannot “unblow” a decision eventhough some referees have been influenced by the crowd to do so.
Lately in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series a referee in 7s rugby had blown his final whistle but the insistence of England coach saw him continue with the game and England ended up scoring the winning try.
The player had kicked the ball into touch directly from a penalty instead of tapping the ball first with his toe. Kicking the ball out directly means the game is still alive, according to the coach, and a lineout is to be held.
In that case the referee failed to apply the power of the whistle.
The other option is to stick to the power of the whistle and apologise later to the aggrieved party.
In the 1999 Rugby World Cup many Fijian rugby fans still angered by the Flying Fijians loss to France in Toulousse said that it was better if Kiwi referee Paddy O’Brien did not apologise to Fiji flanker Setareki Tawake for making a mistake.
Tawake had walked out of the aftermatch party unhappily and the big double decker headline in The Fiji Times the next day read: Ref says I’m sorry.
Fiji was gaining dominance over the French and Tawake went in for a tackle inside the French 22 metres area. He hit the French so hard the ball shot out to the scoring line and Tawake went on to score a try. But O’Brien called for a knock forward and a scrum was awarded to the French.
Reminiscing about that incident In The Fiji Times 150 years celebration at GPH last Friday was team manager that year 1999 Pita Nacuva.
“It was quite unfortunate. The referee thought the tackle by my tau was a knock forward and disallowed the try. That try and conversion would have catapulted Fiji to another level, as we were really building up,” Nacuva said.
That bad decision was only one of the many Fijians felt had been one sided especially with the couple of penalty tries awarded to France.
In 2015 and the past RWC tournaments the Flying Fijians also came across some and even in 1999 the All Blacks were subject to some questionable refereeing in their loss to France.
Every team has to come across those moments of being unfairly treated by the men in control on the other hand we have also enjoyed some fortunate moments when tries and points are scored by our teams that have been disputed by other teams. But we do not notice those. We should expect some decisions to go against the Flying Fijians in Japan, but that is beyond our control.
As we pray for our team to play their bests let us not forget to also pray for the referees to make fair decisions. Only God controls the uncontrollable.
Then again, to err is human and to forgive is divine. Go Fiji go!