By AP
November 22nd 2009 @ 1:04am
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IRB ref manager apologises to Dickinson
International Rugby Board referees manager Paddy O’Brien has apologised to Australian match official Stuart Dickinson for publicly criticising his performance in New Zealand’s 20-6 victory over Italy.
O’Brien was quoted as saying that Dickinson, considered Australia’s leading referee, had made the wrong decisions in scrums late in the game, awarding penalties to Italy when it should have been New Zealand.
He said the Australian had been told to watch a video of the game, would receive coaching on scrums and would have to lift his game or miss out on future games.
Rugby’s world governing body issued a statement on Friday saying that O’Brien had apologised to Dickinson and the Australian Rugby Union for giving his appraisal of the referee’s performance to the media.
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Cattledog said | November 22nd 2009 @ 2:33pm | Report comment
As I said in a MUCH earlier post. I would have expected PO’B to do exactly that. Whilst it was poor judgement initially, it takes strength of character to apologise for such actions. Well done Paddy.
ThelmaWrites said | November 22nd 2009 @ 11:20pm | Report comment
More than the apology, I am heartened by the assurances from the IRB of best practice protocols. Joh4Canberra provided the link to worldcupweb.com and this is part of the statement:
“A clear and best practice protocol exists for match official appraisal and feedback.
“While such meetings with team management are regular practice, the IRB said in a statement that it was not IRB policy to publicly comment on refereeing appraisals or to discuss details of meetings held with team officials and such feedback should be conducted via appropriate channels.
xxx “A clear and confidential best practice protocol exists for match official appraisal and feedback involving stakeholders and I regret breaking this protocol.”
I have taken the trouble of reproducing part of the statement in the hope, however vain, that the other posters in the longer thread will note this.
Joh4Canberra said | November 23rd 2009 @ 5:16am | Report comment
The problem was NOT that Paddy O’Brien thought what he thought or even that he said what he said. The problem was when, how and to whom he said it. It’s O’Brien’s job to watch refereeing performances, rate them and report back on areas of concern. But not to the media. And not to the coaches of the New Zealand All Blacks. O’Brien’s job is to raise these concerns with the referee and report back to the IRB.
This is not some wall of silence to immunise referees from criticism but rather a simple matter of respect for Dickinson as a person, for refereeing as a profession, and for the position which O’Brien holds. O’Brien’s job is not to publicly criticise referees in the media. If he wants to do that he should resign his current position and become a sports journalist or just one of the other countless armchair critics. O’Brien’s job is to assess referees’ performances, and report back areas of concern to the referee and to the IRB. By going public to the NZ media he abused his position.
Just imagine if that was a coach slagging off one of his own players like that in the media. The player would be offended as would his team mates and a lot of fans would be thinking “What on earth is going on? Why is the coach doing this before the media instead of face to face with the player his team mates at a team meeting? Does this man not have any sense of decorum?”. Yes, the coach should be honestly appraising his team’s performance and forcefully criticising a player whose performance is worthy of criticism but he shouldn’t really be slagging off his players in the media rather than going through the appropriate channels to raise his concerns. But when the referees boss does the same thing to one of his referees people somehow think that’s OK. Honestly.
Anyway, having said that at least he realised his error of judgement and was man enough to issue an apology.
Wix said | November 23rd 2009 @ 7:55pm | Report comment
Refereess must be publicy criticised, just like players. The ARU has all but said it is ok to do so. Refereeing standards have been abysmal for many years. Most of them, like Stuart Dickinson, have next to no playing experience. And it shows mostly in their adjudication of forward play, where 80% of the game takes place.
Please do not tell me that playing experience is not a pre-requisite. This is rugby, not simplistic codes like League, AFL and soccer.
Spare me
Cattledog said | November 23rd 2009 @ 8:24pm | Report comment
Wix, you may be at the right grid reference, but your definately on the wrong planet!