Why abuse of referees is a national disgrace
There was a strange and awkward moment before the start of the match between the Reds and the Chiefs. Referee Paul Williams was fiddling with his watch as he waited for the television to OK the start of the match. Williams then looked at Bryn Gatland, offered his paw for a handshake and tapped the first-five amicably on the back.
It may not seem like a big deal to you, but I found it decidedly odd. Sure, refs and players shake hands after a game but before the game there has always been separation. The referee needs to preserve his or her authority by maintaining an independent distance.
The problem with what Williams did is that it all looked a bit matey. It also looked far from impartial. It is not as though Williams wandered down to the
10m line and shook hands with a couple of Reds players.
And although you may think this is a particularly small molehill being turned into a mountain, I suggest it is symptomatic of an increasing malaise in top level sport. This creeping chumminess of referees is giving the players a licence to say what they like.
Nigel Owens, the former international referee, mentioned this in a recent column in the Telegraph. Owens wrote: ‘‘One other area that needs to be addressed . . . is the amount referees talk to players. It comes up with the Welsh referees who I coach, who I am trying to get out of the habit. I see them talking almost too much with players, who talk them out of decisions . . . the more you talk in a game, the more you open yourself up to have a two-way conversation, and players feel they can talk to you about anything.
‘‘We are seeing more of referees going ‘don’t do that, mate’, which makes players feel: ‘I am speaking to my mate here, I can say whatever I want’. I would like to see less of that, and it’s why a hint of dissent has come into the game recently. Communication is important, but it does not have to be constant. Less is often more. There is no need for a debate on the field.’’
But a debate on the field is precisely what we are getting at the moment, one that ironically Owens did much to foster by his own style of reffing. That debate then continues off the field. Ardie Savea and Aaron Smith have both been lightly alerted by NZR’s Chris Lendrum for criticising referees after the match. But should we be surprised when they have been questioning referees all the way through the match?
Despite NZR’s mealy mouthed motion the dissent continued at the weekend. Smith was marched 10m for arguing with referee Ben O’Keeffe and Savea was still arguing with Nic Berry at the end of the Brumbies v Canes match about Salesi Rayasi’s yellow card. I haven’t seen either player censured yet, as happened to England’s Anthony Watson for an inappropriate tweet.
Rugby has always prided itself on the referee being free from such abuse. No longer. It is now a worldwide problem.
Players and coaches should be aware of this but the message is not getting home. In New Zealand in particular losing too often seems to be the fault of the referee. Graham Henry still blames Wayne Barnes for the All Blacks exit at the 2007 World Cup.
Half the country still seems, quite ridiculously, to hold Romain Poite responsible for their failure to win the Lions series.
Never mind all the decisions that went the All Blacks way in the first test, or the huge decision that the officials got wrong in the All Blacks’ favour in the second half of that final test, or all the areas of contention about that final reversal of the penalty call. No, it was all the ref’s fault.
And still the moaning goes on.
The other week former Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd, now of Northampton, whinged after his team lost to Saracens: ‘‘He (the ref) didn’t have enough nuts, did he? I mean it was a clear hinge. There was only one side under pressure in that series of scrums.’’
Perhaps Boyd might do well to listen to former England hooker Brian Moore, who is now also a qualified referee, when he says that the issue of scrums is an intractable issue which ‘‘isn’t helped by the fact that not one top referee has played in the front row and yet they all seem to think they are qualified to advise players as to how they should go about scrummaging’’.
‘‘There were a number [of scrums] when [Wayne] Barnes guessed which player was at fault for a collapse or improper binding and so on.
‘‘There is nothing wrong with using the word guess because only the two props involved actually know who was responsible.’’
Some of our top refs might do well to listen to Moore and stop guessing, particularly when they keep guessing the same way. Williams awarded the Chiefs multiple scrum penalties against the Reds, some of which were ludicrous, and they tipped the result in the Chiefs’ favour. Those decisions don’t look good when you’ve been fraternising with your countrymen before kick-off.
This is why referees need to keep a distance.