November 15 2008 slipped by mostly insignificantly as the All Blacks completed their customary creaming of Ireland, 22-3. I say ‘mostly insignificant’ because I noticed one thing: Mark Lawrence, the South African referee, made ALL the difference.
Now, with the Tri Nations about to kick off, I see that Croke Park has come back to haunt Mr Lawrence.
I imagine the New Zealand camp have lodged an objection and at the eleventh hour as the lesser Craig Joubert (South Africa) will step in for the Australia Vs All Black opener.
The official explanation is that “Lawrence has withdrawn for personal reasons.” Yeah, right!
Going on the Croke Park game, Mark Lawrence isn’t a Kiwi favorite and I remember watching how, in my eyes, he skillfully turned the public in the stands against New Zealand.
The All Blacks were always going to win, but on that day, Mark Lawrence seemed intent to not allow the All Blacks to have their cake and eat it.
Some say winning is everything. Certainly, in New Zealand that might be true, but many South Africans will attest that in the game of rugby union, victories can be made ‘less sweet.’
As a Bok fan, I can recall many such victories for South Africa: combinations of citings, yellow and red cards or post match accusations of poor sportsmanship have being almost de rigor.
Cynical forces involved in this are difficult to nail down, but we all know they exist.
Last year in Dublin, I saw South Africa’s Mark Lawrence step into this cynical cesspool. There was no room for doubt, he was giving the All Blacks penalty tries and generally working the crowd like a rock star.
Every neutral fan watching the game was converted for the ‘hard done by’ heroic Irish lads and Ireland’s fans were losing their ‘respect’ for New Zealand’s legends.
As a South African, I paused for a snigger and thought, “about bloody time,” but it seems my mirth wasn’t universally shared and Graham Henry and co weren’t too impressed with Mr Lawrence and his apparent skill at ‘their’ game.
To be fair, Craig Joubert isn’t going to make many Aussie and Kiwi friends, but maybe it’ll level the game when South Africa start clocking up citation-after-red card-after-citation from our well versed colleagues from the South Pacific.
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