McBryde blasts ‘lack of foresight’ in choice of South African official
LIONS assistant coach Robin McBryde offered an insight into the camp’s frustration that a key member of the officiating team for tomorrow’s First Test against the Springboks will be South African, but conceded the tourists have no choice but “to get on with it”.
McBryde said the Lions were informed on Wednesday that South African Marius Jonker would be taking the key role of Television Match Official because
New Zealand’s Brendan Pickerill was unable to travel due to the pandemic. Jonker will be supporting the Australian referee Nic Berry.
Lions coach Warren Gatland is reported to be furious that contingency plans are not in place, and his assistant McBryde said there was “a lack of foresight” because “there’s a reason why that position is neutral”.
The picture is complicated by the fact that Jonker, a Test referee until 2014 whose son, Rynhardt, plays for the Sharks with a number of the Springboks, was the TMO when the Lions lost to South Africa A nine days ago. He showed Faf de Klerk, the brilliant Springbok scrum-half, a yellow card for a first-half charge that the Lions considered worthy of a red. Had he sent him off, de Klerk may have been banned for Test matches.
“It was a bit unexpected,” said McBryde” We only found out on Wednesday. There’s a slight lack of foresight because there’s a reason why that position is neutral.
“There’s no plan B put in place. You’ve just got to get on with it really. The role of the TMO, his say is pretty final with regards to communication between him and the referee. It is a very important position. I’m sure there will be no issues on weekend.”
McBryde said the Lions are confident the officiating teams would not have previous matches in their mind.
“It’s very much a clean slate,” he said. “There’s consistency between the referees, that’s what they’re aiming for. We had a good discussion in and around
a lot of things that have happened to date.
“But the impression I got really was that they wanted to move on and that they trust in their own decisions and communications and the understanding between the three of them, so hopefully that will come to the fore.”
McBryde added that the Lions had stressed to the referees that they will be looking to take on the Springboks in their area of traditional strength, the scrum.
“What we were keen to stress to the referees, in the scrum in particular, is we’re not looking to match them,” he said.
“We’re looking to go beyond that really, and build on the performances that we’ve had to date.”
McBryde is confident that the Lions are ready for anything the Springboks can throw at them after a week of intense training in Cape Town, where all three Tests in the series will be played. He said that those who had been left out of the 23 had vented their frustration at training.
“There is a lot more edge about our training, a lot more bite,” he said.
“The players taking a bit more ownership as well. The session on Tuesday was great because those non-23 really frustrated the starting team and the subs as well.
“That’s what you want, for the players to be asking questions of each other so we don’t fall into the trap of feeling too comfortable. So it’s been good, and that edginess, that’s brought a different feel to it this week.
“It’s great to have that level of competitiveness, especially once the team is out there.
“You encourage the boys to channel that frustration and take it out on the training field, which they did.”