Poor provincial officiating needs to be fixed
OPINION: The refereeing in the national provincial championship is sub-par and New Zealand Rugby needs to undertake a full review of their referee development systems.
Botched calls are becoming a frequent occurrence in the competition with provincial fans across the country consistently left frustrated by the standards of the referees.
Brett Johnson’s effort for the Manawatu versus Taranaki match was among the worst in the competition this year.
Both teams could have gripes, but Manawatu were left worst off with poor calls costing them important points at key moments.
Johnson’s ruling of a no-try for Callum Gibbins at fulltime was ridiculous, lazy and arrogant.
With time expired, Manawatu were searching for an allimportant bonus point when Gibbins surged for the line, reached out and plonked the ball at the base of the posts.
Johnson blew his whistle for a knock on and quickly called an end to the game.
Meanwhile, Gibbins pleaded his case, he knew he scored and asked Johnson to go to the TMO.
Johnson refused and it cost Manawatu points.
Why Johnson would not got the TMO when it was available to him is baffling.
Gibbins had no reason to lie about scoring the try considering he was asking the referee to look at the video evidence.
Perhaps Johnson was cold and just wanted to get out of the miserable weather in New Plymouth, or maybe he was just being stubborn.
Regardless of the reason, it was not good enough.
Two other incorrect calls also proved costly for Manawatu.
The first was when he ruled a penalty on a perfectly legitimate Heiden Bedwell-curtis strip which lead to a 5m lineout to Taranaki and a try.
The other was when Manawatu were on attack with a maul close to the try line and an offside Mitchell Graham was allowed to shut down the drive when it splintered.
Taranaki had their complaints too, alleging Bedwell-curtis got away with a shot to the face of Marty Mckenzie in the first half.
Maybe we could let the refereeing performance go if it was a one-off.
But that is not the case. It is a weekly storyline.
Adding to the issues is New Zealand Rugby’s insistence on using home town assistant referees and TMOS, a cost-cutting measuring ensuring they don’t have to fork out money and flights for three more officials.
Former Manawatu Turbos coach Jason O’halloran copped a heavy monetary blow from NZR for speaking out about the issue.
He surely regrets it now considering absolutely nothing was done to fix the issue.
Gibbins was diplomatic in his post-match interview as he continued to insist he scored the try, but refused to blame Johnson.
Coach Jeremy Cotter was similarly careful with his comments.
It is not surprising from either of them as the second they step out of line, NZR will be quick to hand out a sanction regardless if the criticism is warranted.
The standard of refereeing in this professional competition has been terribly amateur.
Considering New Zealand has such a strong production line of players it is baffling we have such a hard time developing top-class referees.
Not enough is being done at the highest level to get referees ready for pressure-filled matches.
It is a thankless task. But that is not an excuse for not getting it right.
Players spend all year preparing for a short provincial campaign hoping to catch the eyes of Super Rugby coaches.
Coaches spend the year planning for games and rely on results to retain their jobs.
And fans shell out hard-earned money to either watch the games at the stadiums or on paid television considering the competition’s lack of presence on free-to-air television. They all deserve better. I don’t blame the referees themselves. They are not put in a position to succeed.
I blame the decision makers at NZR.
They are a multi-million-dollar entity, it is about time they dig into their pockets and invest in not only up-skilling referees, but encouraging them to stay in the game longer with better pay packets.