SANZAR should get rid of local referees system

 
Spiro Zavos Columnist

By , 11 Mar 2010 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert

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Steven Sykes, right, of the Sharks of South Africa hooks Dean Mumm of the Waratahs' of Australia during their Super 14 rugby union match in Sydney, Saturday, March 6, 2010. The Waratahs won the match 25-21. AP Photo/Rick Rycroft.

The furore from the Sharks over the refereeing of the Australian referee, Paul Marks, in his handling of the match against the NSW Waratahs was always going to happen in Super Rugby, sooner or later.

The system of using local referees, instead of neutral referees, was brought in last year when the South African, Andre Watson, a World Cup finals referee, was SANZAR’s convenor for referees.

The notion behind the change was that the best referees should referee the top matches of the round. It just so happened that five of the nine top referees were deemed to be South African. This meant that South African teams had South African referees for some of their matches in Australia and New Zealand, and most of them in South Africa.

The absurdity and essential unfairness of the system was revealed when the South African referee, Jonathan Kaplan, was allocated the 2009 Super 14 final at Pretoria between the Bulls and the Chiefs.

The week before, Stuart Dickinson, a referee with experience in three World Cups, had referreed the Bulls – Crusaders semi-final at Pretoria. Why wasn’t he given the final?

This whole matter of local referees is difficult for referees (it is unfair for them to exposed as Marks has been to criticisms of ‘home town’ refereeing). It is unfair, too, to rugby reporters, supporters and coaches who are liable to lapse into a sort of defamation if they pursue what they regard as poor refereeing too forcefully.

In the case of Marks, for instance, all his decisions, even the Kurtley Beale no-penalty decision, can be defended. In the case of Beale, Marks can argue (correctly in my view) that he sent off Andy Goode for an infringement in a ruck on the Sharks try line. He did not award a penalty try, even though the offence warranted a yellow card.

Marks can argue that the same principle applied with Beale. He was sent off but there was no penalty try awarded. Referees are reluctant (and rightly so) to award penalty tries from incidents that happen about 30m to 40m out from the try line.

The fear of defamation and of maligning referees with implications of home town decisions has meant that a number of incidents that took place last year when local referees were on the field just could not be discussed.
In one match, for instance, a local referee over-ruled a touch judge’s call for off-side and allowed the movement to carry on for a try to a team from his country …

How can you discuss this sort of ruling trenchantly, without incurring the possibility of a defamation action on the grounds of implying that the referee was favouring one particular side?

When Super Rugby started in 1996, the local referee system was put in place. I remember getting an ear-bashing from Chris Hawkins, the Waratahs coach, after he believed his team had been robbed of a victory in New Zealand by some dicey refereeing from a New Zealand referee.

I couldn’t write the story, and Hawkins did not want it written up. He was incensed, however, and just wanted someone to know his feelings.

The system was changed to neutral referees a year or so later. And this system worked well. Now we have the local referees system reintroduced and the behind the scene mutterings of coaches have exploded with the Sharks reacting very badly to their defeat by the Waratahs.

Rugby has complex rules. Referees have to make decisions in seconds that might take a judge months to work out. There will always be complaints because so many interpretations depend on subjectivity rather than objectivity.

The Beale incident is a case in point. You could write a long treatise on it. The referee has to make his decision in a matter of seconds.

The best defence against even the possibility of home town decisions is to remove any possibility of them.

This meant ditching the local referees system and returning to neutral referees. And, the quicker the better for the integrity of Super Rugby to be maintained.

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