Irish fans sour about referee Owens, claim All Blacks will cheat
WHEN the All Blacks and Ireland take the field tomorrow, international referee Nigel Owens will be holding the whistle.
His appointment to the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal didn’t faze the All Blacks camp, assistant coach Ian Foster said it was neither good nor bad and that they were happy with whoever they got, but Irish fans weren’t as accepting.
Owens’ current resume - he has the lowest average penalty count out of all tournament referees, and the longest ball-in-play time — didn’t impress hopeful Irish fans.
When the announcement was made, former Ireland rugby player Luke Fitzgerald shared the news with a face palm emoji. When asked what the issue was he replied: “I like the referee to referee the game. ABs know they’ll be able to cheat all day at breakdown.”
Fans were quick to criticise Owens’ approach to the game.
“(Three) years ago I’d have been delighted to have Nigel Owens as a ref for #NZLvIRE. Now I’m dreading it, he’ll let everything go, particularly the ABs (sic) shenanigans at ruck time. Loves a good game, not so good on the technicalities,” one Irish fan commented.
“I can’t stress enough how bad of an appointment Nigel Owens is for Ireland on Saturday. He will let them away with blue murder and who can forget the Aviva in 2013,” another wrote.
The 2013 game referred to was refereed by Owens in Dublin. At the end of the match, Ryan Crotty crossed the line with a try causing Ireland and Irish rugby fans a lot of heartache.
The All Blacks ultimately defeated Ireland 24-22 with the last points of the game scored by Aaron Cruden’s second conversion attempt — Owens allowed a redo because he believed the Irish players moved before the first kick attempt.
The sourness from Irish fans was mirrored by Irish media who claim Owens’ appointment was only good news for the Kiwis.
“You often hear of the extra 1 (per cent) in great sides, how they seek it every day in training and then implement it on the pitch. For New Zealand, they often find that in pushing a referee to the brink of a card, and then winding it back in,” Irish sports reporter Rob O’Hanrahan from Sports Joe wrote.
Foster said Owens was a great referee and put his faith in World Rugby’s selection process. World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said the four referees chosen for the quarterfinal games — Owens for the All Blacks vs Ireland; Frenchman Jérôme Garces for England vs Australia; South African Jaco Peyper for Wales vs France; Englishman Wayne Barnes for Japan vs South Africa were the “best of the best”.
Match official boss Alain Rolland said all of the referees for these games would also be considered for the semi-finals and final matches.
comes to offloading and line breaks, then victory will belong to Ireland.”
Ireland finally broke their 111-year drought against New Zealand in Chicago in 2016 and D’Arcy said the 2019 team must emulate at least part of the strategy from Soldier Field in the second row.
“What needs to happen is Ireland must frustrate the hell out of New Zealand, imprint the word ‘Ireland’ in their psyche forever more, and that starts in the same place they hurt them in Chicago,” he added.
“Iain Henderson and James Ryan need to overshadow (Brodie) Retallick and (Sam) Whitelock. They must overpower two of the biggest and most powerful men to ever wear the black jersey,” said D’Arcy, referring to the opposing second row partnerships.
“If Ireland are to smash the glass ceiling, the names Henderson and Ryan must ring out around the skinny alleyways of Shinjuku deep into Sunday morning.”
Flanker Peter O’Mahony must also have a big game, the former Leinster centre wrote, and Ireland must convert all their penalties and concede as few as possible.