Unless you’ve spent the last seven days holidaying in a different part of our solar system, you will have seen one of rugby’s most contentious and high-profile refereeing decisions play out in Auckland last Saturday.
For the benefit of the interstellar travellers out there, the weekend’s Rugby Championship clash between South Africa and the All Blacks saw Springbok hooker Bismarck Du Plessis yellow-carded for a crunching tackle on Dan Carter. French official, Romain Poite, asserted that Du Plessis’ massive hit was illegal. Successive video replays showed this to be false, but the Frenchman had made up his mind and crucially instructed Television Match Official (TMO) George Ayoub to check only for foul play in the scuffle that came after the hooker’s challenge.
In an era where elite referees are oft accused of an overly-pedantic and unnecessary reliance on the TMO – whose role in the game is ever-increasing – it was at least encouraging to see an official make a real-time decision, and with such conviction. However, with the technology at his disposal, the ability to review the incident himself on the big screen, or have the TMO do so, there was little excuse for Poite’s call, particularly given how game-altering it proved to be.
Du Plessis was later correctly shown a second yellow for leading with his elbow into a tackle, amounting to a red card, and depriving the Springboks of arguably their top performer. With the hooker’s final departure, the game was effectively over as a contest, and the hosts retained and extended their proud record at Eden Park.
That one of the most eagerly-anticipated and engrossing test match battles was dominated by refereeing decisions left an overriding feeling of disappointment. Spectators and fans gave voice in the days that followed to their frustration at being “short-changed” by the eventual non-contest. The uproar in South Africa is all the more understandable given what was at stake, and that many believed Satuday’s fixture offered a realistic chance of a rare victory on New Zealand soil.
Nonetheless, neither the inaccuracy of the decision nor the magnitude of the occasion justifies the torrent of abuse flowing from all around the rugby world in the direction of Romain Poite and the IRB. Even certain household names within the sport have taken their criticism of Poite’s ruling several steps too far. The Frenchman is one of the world’s most distinguished and accomplished referees, and to see a single mistake spark a mass movement against him is at best unsavoury, and at worst, disgraceful.
Currently, a Facebook group entitled “Petition To Stop Romain Poite Ever Reffing A Rugby Game Again” is sitting at over sixty-thousand likes. This online campaign has an altogether familiar air to it, with a similarly titled page on the site hitting out at Kiwi official Bryce Lawrence in the wake of the 2011 Rugby World Cup quarter-final between Australia and South Africa. The Springboks had felt aggrieved after that game at Lawrence’s interpretation of the breakdown, particularly with regards to Wallaby flanker David Pocock’s legality while contesting for the ball.
Speaking last year to the NZ Herald, Lawrence admits the movement against him ‘got pretty nasty’.
“Not really threats on my family as such, there was a concern, but it was mainly aimed at me through social media,” he said. The safety fears this raised prevented him from taking charge of games in South Africa, and eventually forced his retirement from refereeing at the age of just forty-one. He now works as the NZRU’s high performance referee reviewer.
This week, I spoke to Wayne Barnes, another elite official who has suffered at the hands of such online insult, and overcome a number of setbacks in his career with the whistle. The Englishman is keen to point out that the perception that referees are not held responsible for their mistakes is one that is entirely false.
“As someone who’s been stood down from internationals, someone who’s been taken off the international panel, and someone who’s been stood down from Premiership rugby – the belief that we’re not accountable is not right. If a player doesn’t perform, they are accountable to their coach or director of rugby, the same as I am to my bosses if I don’t perform,” said Barnes. “We’re assessed, scrutinised, supervised in every single match. We do a self-analysis of every single match. Each coach gets input into our performance review via our managers. Also, we’re pretty harsh on each other as well. That idea that we aren’t accountable is wrong – I can tell you from personal experience that we very much are.”
Barnes also sought to dispel the misconception that referees are not, first and foremost, fans of the game they officiate. “People don’t understand that referees are massive fans of the game. We actually enjoy rugby. The reason we got into rugby is that we love the game, and want to be involved in the game. For whatever reason, we’ve ended up retiring from playing and refereeing instead. But we still love the game, and love going down to our local clubhouse, having a few pints with our friends, watching our international team on TV and cheering them on.”
Barnes has experienced first-hand the vitriol from fans, having incurred the wrath of much of New Zealand following the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-final between the All Blacks and France. Many were upset by his decision to yellow-card Kiwi Luke McAlister, and claimed he failed to spot a forward pass in the lead-up to the crucial second French try. He feels, however, that the bile and contempt that reared its ugly head anew this week is detrimental to the sport and its wider image.
“Someone on Twitter or Facebook doesn’t really know the kind of world that’s out there. I think we’ve all got a duty to uphold what is special about the game. What everyone loves about our game is this idea of the mutual respect between teams, referees and fans. People abusing players or referees isn’t good for our game. Sure, we have to be able to learn from each other and hold our hands up when we make mistakes, but someone screaming abuse at me from the touchline, or screaming abuse at a player from the touchline or online – it’s not good for the game or what we should really applaud about our game.
“The idea of respect and discipline is what makes us unique, and what I believe is our unique selling point.”
Put simply, the abuse and derision hurled at Poite over the past seven days is not befitting the sport of rugby union, or the values it embodies and holds so dear. The Frenchman recognises he made a mistake, and has officially acknowledged so. The IRB have issued a statement as such, and wiped the red card from Du Plessis’ record.
It may be that Poite is stood down from international matches for a period, but one is left desperately hoping that his career does not follow the same path as Lawrence’s. As Barnes points out, respect is a key pillar of the sport, and something that has largely been upheld throughout the professional era. It sets rugby apart from so many of its contemporaries, and it is something the game cannot allow to be lost – least of all in favour of the ill-conceived spite that at present threatens to tarnish its reputation.
Read more from Wayne Barnes in Jamie’s in-depth report on the IRB’s scrum directive, coming soon on the blog.
By Jamie Lyall (@JLyall93)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
One of the best reads of the year, with the growth of social media we see the growth of the ‘outspoken idiot.’ So much respect to the referees, as well as the players and other officials, to keep going strong through all the abuse that heads their way. Only one way to improve from mistakes!
However Poite made a very poor decision that destroyed an evenly balanced contest. And from a neutral’s viewpoint it can also be said that he prejudiced the outcome of the competition.
He was provided with tools to make a decision and didn’t use them. I watched with the NZ commentary and even they were surprised.
Completely agree, it was a horrible decision and there certainly should be some action taken. However, shouting abuse at him online or in real life and trying to end his career is not the right or sensible way to go about. In fact its malicious while Poite’s mistake was an honest one.
Completely agree. Would we do the same to the players? If a single dropped catch gave the game to the opposition team would we view that as a player not using everything he had available (skill, experience, etc.) to stop a mistake from deciding a game?
Whatever the ref has done, calling him out and scaring the bejeesus out of him is not on. Even Alain Rowlands can walk around Cardiff without fear.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t. The referee has a hard enough job without at least half a stadium baying for his blood during the match never mind the sustained social media abuse. The fact that some of these attacks have been from players and pundits is scandalous to say the least.
Personally the fact that the red card was rescinded without more being made of the second yellow with effectively an elbow strike to the throat/neck area is a murky at best. Take that incident as a separate matter and why wasn’t the citing officer upgrading that yellow to red?
A forearm or elbow to anywhere above the shoulders is as bad if not worse than a punch to the head as there is more than likely more force behind it due to momentum. Too many “skills” and techniques now being coached and employed are simply dangerous and are an erosion of the laws that a blind eye have been turned to by all involved at the elite level.
Quite frankly Wayne Barnes deserves to be struck off the international referee panel, there was the 2007 fiasco with NZ and France and again at RWC 2011 he disallowed a penalty kicked by James Hook against South Africa. Barnes then refused the player’s request to go to the TMO and even ran in front of Welsh tackers as a’blocker’ when SA scored a try. The man should not be allowed to ref an under 11 Sunday match in January.
I think Poite is usually a very good and fair referee, and it would be a crying shame if he was forced or persuaded to step down from the international game after this. Sure he’s made a bad call on this particular incident, but who in terms of referees hasn’t? Let’s not forget the real villain that is STEVE WALSH. Now there’s a man that’s a disgrace to the sport. Dropped by New Zealand RFU because he was so bad… Even today he consistently tells players off like children, despite the fact he’s making the wrong calls… Urgh! But anyway Poite’s never been anywhere close to being that bad, so give him a break! If Walsh stays so does Polite!
I love Steve Walsh. Love him to bits.
Whilst Poite’s decision for the first yellow was incorrect, the abuse is obviously not acceptable in the game of rugby union.
Secondly, nobody seems to be coming back to a key point here – why did Du Plessis elbow someone in the throat when he had already received a yellow? If I was from SA, it is him I’d be looking at. Particularly in such a big game. He made the game a no-contest, not Poite.
Jacob, it is a very valid point. But if you were from SA, I suspect that it would get very short shrift.
At the end of the day, Poite saw something that he was convinced was a reckless tackle and punished it outright. His decision, was wrong, but from his angle what he saw was enough to convince him and if referees start to pass every decision over to the TMO it’s going to become a dull old sport.
The on field referee is, to me, a vital part of the game and the referee getting something wrong is as much a part of the game as players knocking on. Giving every decision to the TMO is going to take a lot away and not always to the benefit of rugby. If nothing else, long periods of stoppage while the TMO uses a protractor to see if a player was carried through the horizontal can significantly increase the chances of cramps and muscle tears and reduign the amount of those that ocurr in a game is crucial. It also makes referees lazy and indecisive because they can always go to the TMO to check and not get this crap from fans or the media. The man in the middle is supposed to be the most competent ref, so why is he handing all of his decisions over?
Maybe it’s because I actually considered doing my refereeing badges and enjoy watching games as a neutral to see how the referee gets on. I love the application of law in the game and admire the hundreds of things that a ref has to watch and get right in an instant. It’s a part of the game that a ref will make a decision based on his judgement, that’s what he’s paid for, that’s what he trained for, that’s why the best refs are getting the biggest games. When they are publicly admonished for one instance where 15 camera angles in slow motion mean that pundits and armchair referees get the decision right and the referee has made a judgement based on what he sees and where he sees it from, I weep.
FYI, it is not okay to repeat this to me when I rant about Steve Walsh’s interpretation when he’s refereeing England.
Yes, I think it’s a little funny that this article is mentioning the Poite thing without bringing up the NH recent equivalent of Steve Walsh. To this day many think he is the cause of England losing the Slam. Many, not all, no need to tell me you don’t think that was the difference.
The abuse of Walsh started before the England game – http://www.theweek.co.uk/rugby/52001/rugby-steve-walsh-six-nations-england-wales – and then, when the result wasn’t to everyone’s taste, continued (and still does) long, long after. The media constantly published things about how he shouldn’t be allowed to ref again, he hates England, etc.
Steve Walsh is a slightly different article (and the last comment was a light hearted jest). Walsh was banned from refereeing by the NZRU after too many high profile incidents that weren’t down to refereeing, but abusing and criticising players and coaches including Shane Horgan if I remember rightly and an altercation with England coaches as well as a third strike. He actually is very lucky to referee again. The problem with Steve Walsh refereeing England is he does hate England. He’s pretty much said it. Choosing him then to referee England games is not wise because you are courting controversy and feeding England fans the fuel to blame the referee. I think that the criticism of Walsh over the course of a game is different to what we’re talking about here though and I’m not going to get into it.
My main issue is that when there is an incident like this, the referee makes one decision based on what they’ve seen and they’re abused. Poite is criticised for one decision that was interpreted from his position as what he saw. He saw a shoulder charge, he saw no arms, it’s a sin bin. 15 camera angles say otherwise, but you have to accept that from the referee’s position, he may have had a clear angle that suggested it was a bad tackle. Similarly Barnes’ missed forward pass handing France a try over New Zealand when really nobody except for disgruntled Kiwis in their armchairs seeing the 15th replay in slow motion were in a position to see it was forward. One that gets my gripe is the way Alain Rolland was treated. To this day even, people are telling me it shouldn’t have been a red card for Warburton, but it simply was. Under every directive, under the law, the only option he had was a red card. So when Mr. Rolland visits Cardiff he gets booed before the first whistle and there was plenty of vitriolic nonsense from outside of Wales too, it’s not a criticism of Welsh fans.
Now there’s argument that Poite should have used something the other refs didn’t have available to them and that is the TMO, but why would you go to the TMO when you’ve seen something?
Wookie, agree about the red card from Rolland. Also, as someone who was there, I’d like to say tghat I felt the booing was mostly (all even?) in jest. I booed myself, then we all laughed. It was a panto villain moment. Nobody I know of actually has an issue with him. It’s not like the footie (watched Arsenal yesterday, saw the man who broke Ramsey’s leg about 3 years ago get booed every single touch by the Arsenal fans).
I’ve spoken above about the Walsh thing – I don’t see why England get special treatment in being able to blackball a ref. A lot of us Welsh fans suspect, irrationally, that Irish refs hate us. We hardly ever seem to win when we have an Irish ref. It would be madness to extend that to usbeing able to blackball them from our games. Even if Walsh does hate the English (does he really? Is there a link to where he says “I hate the English?”) then he’s either deemed to be pro enough to ref all games or ref none. No options. Especially not to further the paranoia of any English fans who can’t see the real reasons they lost that game (not singling you out as responsible for that, but even in the recent WC poll on this blog there was still the “as long as we don’t have Walsh refereeing us” comment).
I’m not saying that England have the right to block Steve Walsh from refereeing. I would say however, that it is very dubious he could be banned from refereeing and just sign up with a different union and become a referee again. His professionalism came into question when he was involved in altercations with players and coaches and then turning up to an IRB meeting drunk. I’m also not saying it’s right that people abuse him, but I think that his catalogue of errors against England in the Wales match is very different to what’s being discussed here of a referee making a single error and being pulled through the ringers. It does still, so far as I’m concerned come under the fact that he had a bad day and all refs will have them. I do think that having him referee England/Lions/Ireland with his record courts controversy and people will naturally remember what has happened in the past and associate him with it. Not to say that that’s right, but it does mean that Walsh is instantly in the firing line.
The thing about him hating the English was something to the extent of him saying “I hat refereeing the poms” and him suggesting he had some level of resentment when he got his third strike was on Wiki a couple of years ago, but I don’t see anything about it now or anything anywhere else that says it so it may not have been true and been taken down
I remember one myth about Walsh was that the tatoo he covers on his arm said something like “God hates the Poms”.
I take your point about it being dubious that he should ref as easily after switching Union’s but I still stick to what he say – he refs everyone or noone. This idea that there is a big controversy when he is assigned an English game is an English invention i.e. that’s the only place it is seen as controversial and everyone outside England knows the English think it’s controversial. It’s almost feeding itself now and everyone just needs to get over it. It didn’t affect the result.
To be clear, Poite got the first yellow wrong. BUT, that one wrong decision did not decide the game. He made an error, and across the whole game probably made less errors than anyone else on the park. It happens, lets trust the refs to make the calls, and respect them for doing so.
From a slightly different perspective; my U13 team played a game yesterday with a guy refereeing who was terrible. He did not understand the breakdown at all. He missed knock-ons, forward passes, offsides, the lot. He was not however, biased in any way.
It was frustrating for us coaches, the parents and the players.
However, what was even more frustrating was the constant verbal haranguing of the guy from parents throughout the game. This had the knock-on effect of my players blaming everything that wasn’t perfect in their eyes, on the “terrible ref”. Three of my players had to be removed from play as they started arguing with the ref. I had to speak to all parents at half-time in order to tell them to cease their poor behaviour.
Frankly, both teams played a really good game of committed rugby, but the morning was really sullied for me by the open criticism of the ref. This sort of behaviour is creeping in more and more, from both football (lots of parents have no history with Rugby) and from this behaviour being exhibited at the highest level (and through TV and the press).
We have to protect and support the referees, irrespective of their ability. Without this guy yesterday, there would have been no game for the kids.
I know this is slighly off the flow of this article, but to me, it really shows the knock-on effect.
12 year old players shouting at the ref. Implicitly encouraged by their emotive parents.
We lost by the way, narrowly.
On this note, whatever has happened to the ref marching a team back 10 for talking back to the ref?
It used to happen relatively regularly and although this may just be looking at it through rose-tinted specs, the incidence of mouthy players seemed to be much lower.
I can’t remember the last time I saw it in a pro game.
My side have been marched back for talking to the ref and I saw it last week in an RFU Championship game, but no, you’re not wrong, it happens considerably less often now. Not just chatting back though it was all sorts like when the scrum half ran off with the ball a little bit you used to see them marched back 10 and I’d like to see that brought back into the game because it’s clearly cynical and I’d like to see referees make it known that stopping a tap and go at 50m can turn a touch penalty into a kickable penalty.
Watch any game in the Rabo that Nige refs (not so often now sadly as he’s often swanning around the globe) and you’ll see a lot of that good old fashioned reffing – players back ten yards for lip, etc. I once saw him sin bin a man for screaming loudly when trying to charge down a kick, to try and put the kicker off. “Ungentlemanly conduct” he called it and sent him to the bin. Class.
I have a lot of time and respect for Nige. He’s possibly about my favourite referee. I don’t get too angry with him even when he’s wrong because he makes me think otherwise.
The only reason this is such a big talking point is down to Bismark committing the offence that resulted in the second yellow/red.
Sure it can be argued that had the first card not been given he only would have missed 10 mins but, given he had received a yellow, leading blatantly with an elbow is pretty dumb.
My view is he missed 10 mins of game time due to a poor decision, the other 38 is all on him and Poite should not be taking the flak for it.
dont agree with ref bashing but… Poite has form, does anyone remember his performance in the 2012 Pro12 final? Some weird decisions in that one (on both sides). Its a tough job but consistency, clear instructions to the players and clear signals (for the supporters) do help.