Comments on: IRB ref manager apologises to Dickinson

By: Cattledog

Cattledog — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:24:16 +0000

Wix, you may be at the right grid reference, but your definately on the wrong planet!

By: Wix

Wix — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:55:07 +0000

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

By: Joh4Canberra

Joh4Canberra — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:16:50 +0000

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.

By: ThelmaWrites

ThelmaWrites — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:20:35 +0000

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.

By: Cattledog

Cattledog — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:33:03 +0000

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.