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SPIRO: Super Rugby was the winner, not the referees

30th March, 2014
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The Rebels host the Force with just pride on the line for both sides (AAP Image/David Crosling)
Expert
30th March, 2014
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The Australian rugby community is indebted to Wayne Smith, the veteran rugby writer for The Australian, for bringing to mainstream attention new research on refereeing bias.

Last week Smith gave a synopsis of research into international rugby refereeing that was developed by Professor Lionel Page and Dr Katie Page of the Queensland University of Technology.

Data from the Super Rugby tournament in 2009, the European Super League from 2006 to 2009 and results in Super Rugby 2011 and 2012.

The findings from this research? There is a bias tied to a referees’ identity. “Put simply, when a referee is of the same nationality as one of the teams in the match he’s refereeing, there’s a good chance his decisions will favour that team,” Professor Lionel Page has asserted.

“We found evidence that referees tend to systematically favour their own national teams and this favouritism has a strong impact on the result of matches. This is not about referees making mistakes. We’ve discovered a systematic bias in favour of home or two national teams.”

Further findings were these.

The ‘favouritism’ is more likely to happen at critical times of the match when the issuing of yellow and red cards, or the awarding of tries when scorelines are close and when a ‘degree of ambiguity’ was involved – particularly when scores were close at the end of  a match.

But referees were less likely to be biased when matches are televised or relayed, therefore enabling strong crowd or audience scrutiny. They were also less likely to be biased when the scoreline difference is large, particularly towards the end of the match.

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Wayne Smith summarised his views on this research by saying that he never agrees with anything yours truly, the old Greek, has to say about rugby but … wait for it … he thinks I am probably right when I make the case for neutral referees in all Super Rugby matches.

This call for neutral referees is made by the researchers. They also offer the interesting option of a ‘challenge’ option (perhaps one or two a match for each side) like in sports such as tennis, cricket and American football.

If this option had been available to Reds captain James Horwill in the contentious Lions versus Reds match, he would have challenged the straightness of the lineout throw from which the Lions scored their winning try.

The throw, in my opinion, was palpably not straight. Horwill appealed against it after the try was scored. But under the current regulations, referees cannot revisit the lineout throw after a couple of phases of play resulting in a try.

We need a detailed reaction from SANZAR to this research, with a view to changing the current system of local referees which was brought in 2009 to improve ‘the accountability’ of the referees in the Super Rugby tournament. It has done no such thing. But what it has done is undermine the integrity of the refereeing in Super Rugby.

It was with some interest, therefore, that I tuned into the Reds versus Stormers match on Fox Sports. For reasons that I did not catch, the telecast was delayed.

But the match, when we did see it, was a strongly contested affair, with both sides putting in huge hits and making ferocious contests of the ruck and mauls.

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This was real rugby, an enthralling spectacle as both sides played their hearts out trying to revive their seasons. The opening sequence of play, for instance, went on for two minutes as the teams probed each others’ defences. This provided a thrilling start to what became a thrilling contest.

A large part of the reason for the excellent contest won by the Reds 22-17 over the Stormers was the calm, informed, measured and good-natured refereeing by the New Zealand referee, Chris Pollock. Pollock is emerging as one of the top referees in world rugby and the players respond to his accurate and sympathetic reading of play.

Remember that the Reds are the most penalised side in the Super Rugby competition, averaging 14 penalties every match. Also remember that against the Lions, they conceded an avalanche of penalties awarded against them by the South African referee Stuart Berry.

Against the Stormers, though, they had conceded only three penalties but half-time and eight in total by full-time.

The Stormers, too, were penalised (short arm penalties, of course) four times for not throwing the ball in straight. These penalties were rightly awarded and the contrast with the game against the Lions and their lineout throws, which seemed to me too frequently down their own side, was a stark one.

We turn now to the Sharks versus Waratahs match, won by the Sharks 32-10. By my count, the Waratahs were penalised 22 times to 12 penalties conceded by the Sharks.

The referee was New Zealand’s Mike Fraser. The Waratahs deserved their thrashing on the penalty count. They were ill-disciplined, stupid, niggly and sometimes with their scrumming and lineout work, lazy.

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Admittedly, the Sharks are an abrasive side and they were playing in front of their home crowd, which is vocal and partisan.

The Waratahs looked lost without their finisher, Israel Folau. Folau averages two tries a match this season. The Waratahs, especially early on, made any number of breaks which needed the finisher to convert into a try.

The Waratahs, too, allowed themselves to be rattled by the tight, aggressive and sometimes ferociously on-rushing defence of the Sharks.

The Waratahs had no counter to this until the end of the match when Kurtley Beale, who had been tackled out of the game, pulled off a superb in-pass that led to Bernard Foley crossing over for a try.

The Waratahs, though, looked bereft of ideas and skills needed to break down the intense Sharks defence.

They could not work out how to get the ball wide of the saucer-defence. They did not have the sort of chip-and-chase option that the Chiefs deploy so well when the defence is lined up like a brick wall against them.

The Sharks look to be clones of the 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks, who were also coached by Jake White. They have a terrific front-on and scrambling defence. They kick their penalties.

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Their set piece is strong, although I’d quibble about the way their front row is allowed to come up, with impunity, when the scrum is under pressure. They also should have been penalised, in my view, for not supporting their jumper in several of the lineouts.

It will be fascinating to see whether this Sharks style can create victories in New Zealand and Australia. Jake White’s Springboks were virtually unbeatable in South Africa (like the Sharks) but extremely vulnerable, except in France in Rugby World Cup 2007, outside of South Africa.

Will the Sharks suffer a similar fate?

And talking about being vulnerable in away matches, the upset of the round was down at Melbourne where the Rebels mounted a spirited second half to roll all over a Brumbies side 32-24.

The Brumbies uncharacteristically caved in under the pressure. The New Zealand import Jason Woodward, unwanted by the Hurricanes franchise, scored 27 points himself which included a sensational try.

The Rebels played a terrible first half. They had the dreaded bootitis disease. Phil Kearns was so exasperated that he yelled out at one stage in his commentary, “Don’t kick it”.

Quite right. The crowd, too, started to boo their own team. Quite right, again.

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In the second half, the Rebels kept the ball in hand. They ran at the Brumbies. And the Brumbies, to the distress of their coaching staff and supporters, could not cope with the attack. So instead of recording five-consecutive victories for the first time since 2007, the high-flying Brumbies were brought to earth with a thud.

The Australian Conference is now wide open with the Waratahs, Brumbies and Reds (in my view) all still in contention.

The Sharks seem to have the South African Conference at their mercy.

The Chiefs consolidated their favouritism to win the New Zealand Conference with a typically gutsy and brilliant comeback late in the second half to share points with a draw against the Bulls.

And the Auckland Blues, with not much help from Benji Marshall who in his cameo appeared to be playing touch rugby, gave an inkling of the possibility that they could be contenders with a decisive victory over the Highlanders.

Ma’a Nonu gave the backline a bit of muscle and stability.

But the standout Blues player, in my view, was Jerome Kaino. He was immense at number six. The All Blacks won the 2011 Rugby World Cup on the strength of Kaino’s play, especially on defence and taking the ball up with hard, square shoulders.

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The Blues backs can be sensational, with a pack that might be able to match it with teams like the Sharks, they could be a side that causes some upsets this year.

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