By AAP
November 11th 2008 @ 3:20am
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Best referees for best matches in Super 14
Australian referees can control matches involving Australian teams and foreign rivals in the Super 14 from next season.
Governing body SANZAR today took the ground-breaking step to empower their top whistle-blowers to handle more of the best matches in the tournament to ensure the highest standard of refereeing.
Australian, New Zealand and South African officials will be appointed from a panel founded on merit before nationality.
In the past referees could only control matches involving their countrymen when both sides were from the same country.
“This is a significant step and was taken simply because we wanted to have the best refereeing the best,” said Andy Marinos, managing director of SANZAR.
“It will create a more competitive environment for our referees and will also lead to greater accountability.
“The move to ‘neutral’ officials was one of the major strides that professional rugby took but as the game has matured it has become obvious that we need the best officials on the field.”
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TembaVJ said | November 11th 2008 @ 8:37am | Report comment
I like this idea but like the ELV’s I think its going to have some negitive effects, how much? we will have to wait and see.
TembaVJ said | November 11th 2008 @ 8:58am | Report comment
For this week id keep certain combinations get them fine tuned for England. Jean DV needs to play he is a monster, Id give Adi Jacobs a break and start Steyn off the bench behind Fourie.
I think dropping Habanna for a match will wake him up a bit, put Nokwe on 11 and reward JP for his good match by keeping him in the starting lineup. Kanko can start ahead of Spies, get Januarie in on 9 and bring the king of 9’s off the bench saving him for England.
Blinky Bill - Bellingen said | November 11th 2008 @ 10:09am | Report comment
“Best referees for best matches in Super 14″. Great idea. As a Wallaby fan I’d hate to get stuck with an Aussie ref.
Greg Russell said | November 11th 2008 @ 2:25pm | Report comment
In principle this is a sensible decision, but to what extent is it motivated by a desire to save money through referees not having to travel so much to ply their trade?
The other thing is that neutrality is about perception. When the Waratahs are playing the Blues and Mark Lawrence penalizes Al Baxter for collapsing a scrum, there is no accusation of nationality-based bias. But if Steve Walsh were refereeing this match? Similarly, when the Crusaders are playing the Brumbies and McCaw is penalized by a South African for a breakdown offence, but what if an Australian were in charge?
So as I said, neutrality is motivated by the need to take bias out of people’s suspicions as much as possible. Even if the non-neutral referee is of the highest quality, many will still charge through a gate that is left open to them.
Therefore one does not have to be a genius to predict that in next year’s S14 there will inevitably be incidents where contentious, match-deciding decisions are made by a non-neutral referee, and all hell subsequently breaks loose. There is already enough controversy in rugby about refereeing even with neutral referees, so why throw fuel on the fire by having non-neutral referees?
Greg Russell said | November 12th 2008 @ 7:17am | Report comment
One must ask of this change in policy: what is motivating it? The answer is relatively obvious: Australian refereeing standards are lowest of the three countries, and there is dissatisfaction with this in New Zealand and South Africa.
And why are Australian refereeing standards lowest? Again, the answer is reasonably obvious: because in Australian rugby there is no first-class national competition for referees to develop their skills.
Whenever there is talk of the urgent need for a national, (semi-)professional competition in Australian rugby, the need is always articulated in terms of players. But referees are just like players in needing a semi-professional, high-quality environment for their development.
All sectors of the game in Australia are suffering from the short-sightedness of the ARU with regard to a national competition. Sure, it would cost a lot of money. But one of the oldest phrases in business is “Sometimes you have to spend money in order to make money”. Just ask the Australian referees who next year miss out on S14 appointments (and consequently have their development even further stymied).
Spiro Zavos said | November 14th 2008 @ 2:59pm | Report comment
I agree with Greg in this. In the SANZAR countries I would rank the South African referees in general (with the occasional exception) as best, the NZ referees next, and the Australian referees the worst (with the exception of Stu Dickinson, when he leaves the yellow cards in his back pocket.)
Remember a couple of years ago Robbie Deans said he’d prefer South African referees for the semi-finals and possibly final for the Crusaders when they played South African teams, rather than have an Australian referee.
The IRB apparently is looking at ranking the referees and giving the more important Tests to them. Another good move. It’s always seemed to be foolish to me that inexperienced referees get important Tests. Give these Tests to referees like Alain Rolland et al.
One further point: for years I was at Peter Marshall, the referee manager for SANZAR, to give the early SWuper 14 matches exclusively to the best referees. For years he did the exact opposite. The result was that the tournament invariably started off with badly refereed matches which affected the play which did not become settled until later in the tournament when the better referees were used.
Let’s hope the new system is not a money-saving venture and that the best referees in each countries get the early Super 14 matches.