Top former Australian rugby players and officials have accused World Rugby of opening a “Pandora’s Box” by declaring a World Cup referee was wrong to give a match-winning penalty to the Wallabies.
The seven figures, including 1991 World Cup winning flanker Simon Poidevin and two former Australian Rugby Union president Phil Harry and Ron Graham, said the governing body had failed referees.
Their letter to The Times newspaper added to the stormy debate since World Rugby’s pronouncement that Craig Joubert had been wrong to give a penalty to Australia in the last minute of the quarter-final against Scotland last Sunday.
“We are astonished that World Rugby has chosen to publish a still heavily contested finding with regard to one decision out of the many controversial decisions in this Rugby World Cup, some of them turning the results of matches,” they wrote.
“World Rugby has failed to back the letter and the spirit of the rule declaring that the referee is the sole judge of the game.
“We may never learn the nature of the unusual pressure to which World Rugby has succumbed in taking such a precipitous step, but we are aghast at the Pandora’s Box this procedure has opened up for the future of the game.”
South African Joubert – who refereed the 2011 World Cup final – was lambasted for his decision to award a penalty and not a scrum in the final minute of the quarter-final, with Scotland leading 34-32.
Aussie kicker Bernard Foley converted the penalty to seal a 35-34 win and a date with Argentina at Twickenham on Sunday.
Joubert ran off the pitch without the traditional shaking of hands with players. A bottle was reportedly thrown at him as he went down the tunnel.
Mike
Guest
So, its okay for the governing body to criticize a ref if he isn't a good one? ;)
Hal V
Guest
I totally support the remarks made by Phil Harry and his colleagues. World Rugby should now publicly announce the names of each and every one of their representatives or delegates who were responsible for this disgraceful and reprehensible attack on Craig Joubert so that true supporters of rugby can identify all members of this committee of self proclaimed know-alls who have demonstrated that in fact they know absolutely nothing about either the rules of rugby or the spirit of the game. The late great Jika Travers, who played for Australia, Oxford University and England once autographed his wonderful book on rugby for my tenth birthday and inscribed it as follows " Never dispute the referee's decisions and ALWAYS ACCEPT YOUR DEFEATS LIKE A GENTLEMAN".
Jock M
Guest
There are so many ridiculous laws now it is little wonder that referees have become like police and that they make mistakes. Rugby moved away from the basic premis that there should be a free,fair and open contest for the ball at all times and now we see the administrators contillually making law changes which sink the game even further into something that differs little from League- only with more penalties. South Africa kept in the semi final against the All Blacks because it was awarded plenty of penalties and had a good goal kicker. We also saw the obligatory yellow card given out for an infringement .
Shop
Guest
Yep, exactly that.
FrancisF
Roar Pro
The World Rugby should be red carded for their shameful public put down of their own man, referee Craig Joubert. Their action had put a very bad taste to this World Cup tournament. .
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
I have looked closely at the video and in my opinion the first instinctive reaction of Phipps is to pull his head back probably to avoid being hit in the face by the ball. But instead of hitting his face, the ball ricochets off his chest and is gone before his arms attempt to grab at the ball. While Phipps says he played at the ball, (and he did) I believe Phipps played at it after it had hit him. Therefore the question is did Phipps intentionally play at the ball if it happened so fast it was gone before he could touch /catch it? Craig Joubert may or may not have gotten it right or may or may not have gotten it wrong. But he made a decision on what was before him and that should be final. However that whole issue is secondary to the way World Rugby have disgracefully treated Referee Joubert. World Rugby have got it 100% wrong by not standing by the referee.
Lancaster Bomber
Guest
This is not the first time at a Rugby World Cup a ref has been openly criticised by the governing body. In 2011 Bryce Lawrence was made to apologise for his handling of the Wallabies Ireland pool match, although I'm not sure if that was after the tournament or during it. Later, his semi final performance between SA and Australia was probably the worst we've seen at this level. It seemed he was afraid to make a decision following his earlier mistakes. While it was totally wrong for his bosses to publicly attack him, his ability as a ref paled in comparison to Joubert, who at least has the respect of the players. Bryce appeared to be protected by fellow kiwi and referees coordinator Paddy O'Brien.