- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
New Zealand fans got a taste of the appalling refereeing endured by the All Blacks at Cardiff in the RWC quarter-final with Nigel Owens, the Welsh referee, saving England at Auckland from a monster defeat with a series of bewildering decisions and non-decisions.
As it was NZ 37 – England 20 (which included two runaway tries against the run of play) represented a thrashing that was acknowledged even by the most biased of the UK rugby writers.
And examples of Owens’ woeful refereeing? England were awarded a penalty, for instance, right in front of the NZ posts when Richie McCaw was penalised for being on the wrong side of a ruck while playing the ball. ‘I made the tackle,’ a bewildered McCaw told Owens. ‘No you didn’t,’ was the reply.
The television replay clearly showed McCaw making the first tackle, getting to his feet and facing his own tryline legally winning the ball. Daniel Carter made the second tackle on the English player. And this was the only tackle Owens saw, even though it was only a few metres away from him.
It’s time NH hemisphere referees start to referee what is in front of them, instead of what they think they see. McCaw, along with George Smith who is also unfairly treated by NH referees, has an exceptional skill in making a tackle, getting to his feet and winning the ball. There is not one player in Europe who can do this. NH referees tend to think that because their players can’t do it, it can’t be done.
Owens was dreadful also at scrum time where the All Blacks monstered England to the extent that England in the last 20 minutes just collapsed scrum, and scrum, and bizarrely gained short arm penalties doing so.
Then there was Owens’ tolerance of England’s forwards coming in from the side, a no-no refereed very strictly (and rightly so) every ruck and maul by SH referees.
The All Blacks have not been beaten in NZ for the past five years. On the evidence of the first two Tests this year, the All Blacks are going to remain the team to beat at home and abroad, at least for this season and probably up to 2011.
There is a physical edge and abrasiveness to the forwards that was lacking last year. The lineout, however, creaked against England mainly due to Owens allowing England to come across the line with impunity before the ball was thrown in.
The NZ scrum is becoming a monster wrecking machine. McCaw and Daniel Carter are back to their best (which is as good as any player in their position in the history of rugby). And a centre pairing of power with Ma’a Nonu and high skills with Conrad Smith (something absent last year, too), is being created.
The South Africa 37 – Wales 21 Test at Pretoria was expertly refereed by NZer Lyndon Bray. This allowed both sides to play rugby, rather than the football the NH whistle-blowers seem to prefer. And both did so splendidly, with Wales, in particular, showing flair and grit that was a credit to the players and their coach.
So freely did the South Africans throw the ball around in the first half that at half-time the experts begged the Springboks to go back to basics and use their 63 per cent possession to play ‘less rugby.’ The Springboks had a slight 17 – 15 edge, even though they had opened up the Welsh defence time after time.
It was quite remarkable that despite the fact that they were defending most of the match, and doing the job splendidly, Wales was actually in the lead three times in the Test. The reason for this was two unbelievable tries scored by the genius, Shane Williams.
The highest praise that can be given to Williams is to say that he is rugby players can be reincarnated like Dalai Lamas, then Williams is the new David Campese, just as Campese reincarnated the great Dally Messenger, Australian rugby’s first super-star.
At times the Springboks looked to be an exceptional side. The loose forward trio are terrific. The second row is great in the loose and in the lineouts. But at other times, especially at scrum time and in the mauls, they looked vulnerable. They do not play the ad lib game as well as Australians and NZers. But the athleticism of the loose forwards is very impressive.
If I were rating the two teams on the their first two Tests, I’d say the Springboks look like a good side and the All Blacks look like a very good side.
But whether this is the way it pans out in the Tri Nations tournament we’ll have to wait and see …