Ref plays cards right

The Super Rugby Aotearoa final wasn’t lacking for big moments, and referee Ben O’Keeffe was at the centre of several of them.

The man in the middle did a pretty good job in Saturday night’s decider in Christchurch, won 24-13 by the Crusaders, but there was one major moment which must leave Chiefs fans confused.

Why no penalty try when Will Jordan was ruled to have taken Jonah Lowe high in the act of scoring?

And the irony is amazing, as O’Keeffe was the very same man who in 2018 awarded the Crusaders a penalty try against the Chiefs in Christchurch when Ryan Crotty took a blow to the head from Lachlan Boshier when diving for the line.

Let’s run the rule over the major moments from the final:

33rd minute – Jonah Lowe no penalty try

Chiefs winger Lowe looked like finishing off an excellent attack by the visitors in the right-hand corner, only for a brilliant try-saving tackle from Crusaders fullback Jordan.

TMO Brendon Pickerill was called upon to check the grounding and touchline, and while Lowe hadn’t managed to get the ball to the line, the officials found high contact from Jordan to the head of Lowe.

O’Keeffe restarted play with a penalty for that infringement, but the Chiefs could feel hard done by that they weren’t instead awarded an automatic seven-pointer.

Under World Rugby’s law 8.3: A penalty try is awarded between the goal posts if foul play by the opposing team prevents a probable try from being scored, or scored in a more advantageous position.

There was nothing else stopping Lowe from scoring – no other defenders in his path as he dived for the chalk, so a try was indeed imminent.

There is nothing in the rules that explicitly states as such, but in the referees’ parlance you hear them talk about ‘the offending player having to be removed from the equation’ for them to decide if a try probably would have been scored, and, as such, if Jordan wasn’t there then Lowe would have indeed got to the line.

It was a strikingly similar situation to one from three years ago at the same venue, between the same teams, with the same ref –

– where the Chiefs were on the other end of the call.

The rest of the penalty try rule states that the offending player must be shown a yellow or red card, too. And while it would have seemed an ultra harsh call for Jordan to be marched to the sin bin along with the penalty try, for what was just initial head contact before the tackle height lowered, rules are rules.

The Chiefs were down 12-10 at this stage and while they had their own issues – notably missed goalkicks from Damian McKenzie – and some Crusaders brilliance to

video below from 3:10 see the

blame for the result, it could have proved a big turning point.

41st minute – George Bridge bat back over dead-ball line

A less clear-cut one, this, but another which didn’t fall the Chiefs’ way.

After a kick through from Chiefs centre Anton Lienert-Brown, Crusaders winger Bridge scrambled in the in-goal to try and ground the ball, and ends up getting a hand to it to bat it over the dead-ball line.

It’s a common play seen in rugby league, but in rugby it’s a penalisebale offence.

Law 9.7 (b) states: A player must not intentionally knock, place, push or throw the ball with arm or hand from the playing area.