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Throughout the past week, I have been praying for Italy to beat Ireland so we didn’t have to play the Springboks in the quarter-finals.
On Friday, I saw Manu Samoa expose the Springboks, and as such, my praying stopped and I realized we could take on the Springboks. The forecast is for dry conditions, and they are one of the teams that just cannot handle Quade.
And then came the announcement that Bryce Lawrence was refereeing.
Now, I am not one for referee bashing – I felt absolutely terrible for poor old Nigel Owens, who wrongly copped it after Samoa couldn’t turn a mountain of possession into points against South Africa.
And the case is the same here.
This time next week, when the Wallabies are eliminated, 22 million Australians are going to be calling for Bryce’s blood. I do not want to be calling for it.
However, Bryce’s refereeing style simply has meant Australia has already lost the game this Sunday. For those of you that don’t know, he has a track record of turning every game he referees into a scrap.
Why?
Bryce lets both teams get away with blue murder at the break-down, failing to enforce the following rules consistently time and time again:
– Players going off their feet
– Players entering the ruck from the side
– Players not releasing the tackled player
– Players not rolling away
– Players being offside
The combination of a failure to enforce these crucial rules means dour, defensive kickathon teams are favoured, as the ruck rules favour the defensive team – thus the team less likely to take the ball into a ruck – that is, the team that kicks the ball away and turns rugby into a terrible game to watch.
And this shows with recent Test results:
Australia 14 beat South Africa 9 in Durban (one try)
Queensland Reds 18 beat Crusaders 13 in Brisbane (three tries)
Both these games featured dominating defensive efforts, with a massive scrap at the breakdown.
In contrast, take Australia’s last few games with Wayne Barnes, who in my belief is the game’s premier referee:
Australia 25 beat New Zealand 20 (five tries)
Australia 25 beat Wales 16 (four tries)
Australia 41 beat South Africa 39 (eight tries)
So the last three Tests with Wayne in charge of the Wallabies, have resulted in an average of 5.6667 tries per game. It’s ridiculous to think the best referee for making rugby flow will be running the touchline this weekend.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.