Joh4Canberra's Contributions

What Chabal did was wrong -- no two ways about it. How would players or coaches feel if referees started criticising them and their performances in public the way Chabal did in respect of referees? Referees don't criticise players or coaches in public like this and players and coaches should not criticise referees in public either. For the whole system to work there needs to be a basic level of respect displayed between players/coaches and referees -- even when decisions don't go your way and you think the whistle blower is biased or an incompetent idiot (which he may be -- but then again the problem may be that the person criticising the referee is biased/incompetent etc). It's not a question of whether referees should be beyond criticism; of course they shouldn't be. It is, however, a question of whether it is appropriate for a current player to criticise a current referee in public as Chabal did. It is not and should not be. Journalists and members of the public are and should be free to analyse referees' performances and to criticise them in public fora like this one; players should not be. The position of players (and coaches for that matter) vis a vis referees in rugby is a bit like the position of lawyers vis a vis judges. You can't have a lawyer holding a press conference on the steps of the courthouse after he's lost a case accusing the judge of incompetence or bias. It shows a fundamental disrespect for the whole legal system of which he is a necessary participant. Such behaviour is (in my view rightly) seen as contempt of court and is completely unprofessional. A lawyer who did that would face disciplinary proceedings and probably be barred from practice -- and rightly so. And similarly you can't have players (or coaches) criticising referees in public or referees criticising players (or coaches) in public. By all means, players and coaches should be able to raise their concerns about a referee's performance through appropriate internal channels. I'm all for referees getting feedback on their performances and being held accountable for inadequate performances. But leave the public criticism of referees to journalists and members of the public at large. You can't have a game of rugby without the players and similarly you can't have a game of rugby without a referee. That requires the referees respect the role of players and that players respect the role of referees.

Chabal set to answer for referee comments

27 Apr 2011

But surely that was a problem with the audio between the TMO and the match referee. Everyone watching on TV knew it went over and I'm sure that after viewing the video the TMO also came to that conclusion very promptly. The problem was that once he'd come to that conclusion he couldn't communicate it to the referee because of problems with the audio equipment.

Rugby referees really need an Eye In The Sky

22 Dec 2010

The actual figures are around 500,000 Kiwis living in Oz and around 65,000 Aussies living in Enzed.

Rugby World Cup to draw 85,000 visitors

22 Dec 2010