Stormers vs Blues: Super Rugby live scores

Hello Highlander. I have seen reports about this also. One of the more interesting reports I have seen suggested that the biggest reason the home team get advantages is because of the crowd noise. They took a large group of refs and let them watch a game without sound, and another group of refs watched the same game with sound on. And it was remarkable to see that the home team got a lot more calls with them when the sounds was on. We will never live in world with perfect refereed rugby and we should not expect something that is impossible. My biggest issue is the credibility of Super Rugby. Almost every week can we read about NZ refs favoring NZ sides, OZ ref doing the same and SA refs doing the same. That is terrible marketing for the SR. And as you said, we will get refs favoring the home team even with neutral refs, but with neutral refs we would at least put an end to all the talk with home friendly referees due to national biases. On a good note: The Japanese ref Shuhei Kubo in Highlanders game yesterday is really good. I have seen him ref 4-5 games now, and he has been in total control in every game and from my view it has been clear the players respect him a lot. I he continues like this I do hope Sanzaar gives him the final in SR this year and that they use him a lot during TRC.

Linesman was in on it as well !.

He had his knee on the ground, no try all day.

The refs incompetence is shown by the citing of Treeby. What more do we need?

Haha!... I think others have voiced your opinions for you

What a disgrace performance from both referring n tmo. U should be ashamed of yourself.

Neutral refs still favour the home side by the equivalent of 'a differentiating score', I think is the key term (been a long time since I read the research) lots of Uni level research if you can be bothered wading through it, so correct it's neutrals are not perfect. So we can all accept that, or we should. It is the perception of the home town bias when a game is poorly officiated, ie last night, gets everyone's back up. Good response too Rhino, thanks

Not sure if any rule changes will actually help the refs too much. As you say, rugby is an silly hard game to ref. That is the key question the World Rugby must adress. 50 years ago, when rugby was way slower and less muscular, a single ref at least had a chance to be close to all the action (that they did not call it anyway is another discussion). Rugby's ugly cousin American Football is the closet thing we got to rugby (well League also) and it interesting to see how they handle the ref issue. First of all they acknowledged that is impossible for one ref to see it all. They are six refs on the field and the quality of the referring is lightyears ahead of rugby. Very few calls are missed or go the wrong way. I am not saying that rugby should have six refs on the field and I don't want rugby to become a stop start stop start sport like American Football. But maybe two on the field at least? I also think if they were two refs they actually don't have to be so close to the action as they are now (and many times interferes with play) because there will be four eyes looking from two different angels instead. And when the play breaks up, chances are a lot higher that one of them will be able to follow the action close enough (and the other one can keep an eye on the other players and it would a lot easier to call obstructions and similar calls). If I compare with football again, I say rugby is a faster game than football, despite all tackles. In football it is very rare that a player runs more than 15-20 meter with the ball and it impossible to run at your top speed when you have to control a ball with your feet at the same time (I guy like Messi comes very close though, but he is unique). In rugby, we see 60, 70, 80 meter sprints with the pill in every game and there absolutely no way a 45 year old ref is gonna run as fast as a 24 year old 110 killo winger sprinter. Just like in football, the NFL refs always works as a team. Same same in NHL, NBA and so on. There are many ref documentaries on YouTube where one can see how these ref teams work and how close they are. A ref team becomes like sport team after while almost and it is obvious that they feed from each other and both back each other and give the hardest feedback.

And they continue to appoint local refs. The agenda is let's win at all costs. It is a SANZAAR mismanagement issue. They have honed the art form. Fort Fumble in Australia are minor league compared to Screw-up SANZAAR.

Yep good point. It's definitely worth trying. I guess the problem has been that some countries produce more quality refs (in the SH traditionally SA & NZ), whereas Australia's pool is smaller. A few years ago when Craig Joubert was at his best and a few others, it seemed that the Australia vs NZ game always benefitted from good refereeing, whereas SA vs NZ couldn't have that luxury, unless Nigel Owens stepped in. Rugby is a very tough game to ref. I feel sorry for them as they are heavily criticised regardless. Maybe we need to rather look at simplifying some of the breakdown laws, the scrims appear to have benefitted from recent law changes.

Hi Rhino Neutral refs are of course not perfect, but I think if anyone would take the time to break down all the calls in SR the last 20 years we would see that neutral refs make far less calls that could be considered to be biased. At the end of the day this is a question of credibility and trustworthiness for the whole competition. Rugby should just copy football here. All the refs are from the same country, they are always neutral and always work together in the same team. If rugby teams get better by playing the same players together over time, anyone who thinks that "refs team" would not also improve over time?

Same year 2012 Eden park Test. Bismarkgate? Most Super rugby games?? But as Swede says it's wrong and yet happens. Even with "neutral" refs such as Poite. I don't recall there being any controversy with the Ellis Park test but there you go.... And I bet the ref was a NH neutral. I have just come to expect it now and know that if there's any chance of beating a team in NZ, that they would beat no problems in SA, then they need to see themselves having a 12 point handicap at the start of the game. Take the Sharks in 2014, despite the constant calls against them and 2 men in the bin, a 13 man Sharks team managed to beat the Crusaders in Christchurch. But it was one heck of an effort and fight where they just refused to lose regardless of the endless 50/50 calls going against them. 2015 rolls around, Sharks "score" a try against the Canes, after tmo calls etc ref rules no try. The Blues that same weekend score an almost identical try against the Stormers (??) and it was given. Sharks were winning and could've closed out the game, Stormers would've won too. You'll hear South Africans talking around a braai or in front of the TV on a Saturday morning and the talk is "every time, every time" when referring to the calls made or missed. You can't always look at the penalty count though because a side is penalised for infringing, and it should never be seen as "fair" refererring if you end up with a 10-10 penalty count split, thats where the problems start with he ref or people thinking that. Penalise or don't penalise accurately and fairly, its nonsense to think a team is deserving of the same amount of penalties, what a team does deserve is for an accurate assessment to be made and for th ref to blow, or not blow fairly. If a team is constantly infringing and the other isn't, then they deserve a 15-1 penalty split. Anyway mate, I don't know if this one will ever get solved, I've come to accept that from the last 21 years, although I wish it could change and still get mad at the TV. It's as though he ref, regardless of origin, is precondtiined to think that the home NZ team "should" win the game so his judgements (whether intentional or not/ unconsciously) are made accordingly. Again the top NZ teams are playing great rugby this year and rightfully at the top. Changing the subject a bit but I'd still back the Sharks against the Blues or Highlanders this year whether in NZ or not ;-) I think the other 3 are too strong but the Lions will give them all a run for their money. The playoffs will tell. If the Sharks finish 8th and Crusaders 1st, I'm scared we'll catch a hiding in Christchurch, even if all the 50/50 calls go the Sharks way. But one can hope :-)

Can't both sides see the absurdity here. Kiwi fans hammering SA referees and Saffa fans hammering NZ refs. And this goes back a hundred years. Are we not all very very very tired of this? Would it not be better if Saffa and Kiwi fans unite and just find comfort in each other that you both are the "victims"? And if all fans in both SA and NZ had a common agenda that this has to stop (neutral refs is the only thing that works) and worked together, I think there is a fair chance things could change rather quickly. But as things are now, with both sides throwing handbags at each other - which keeps them divided - this problem will maybe never stop.

My whinge for ages. Why can't we have neutral referees? There will always be the hint of bias, A NZ team v a SA team in SA with SA match officials. It doesn't look good. It should be the same as Caesar's wife. In Europe, the Champions Cup games have neutral officials including the TMO.

Thanks KK ... the game was 'frustrating' . Certainly the standard fell well short of what we had witnessed in Suva 8 hours before ...

Not disagreeing Rhino, all the empirical studies show refereeing favours the home team, more so if it is the dominant side which fair to say NZ has been for a while, so a level of 'momentum refereeing' should be expected. Jaco pulled out a few home town beauties for Ireland in the Dublin AB game last year. However, every now and then we get outliers, this game was one. Not just from the ref but from the full panel of four. Seem to recall SA vs ABs, Ellis Park 2012. Half time the penalty count favoured SA 9-0 and 12-4 at full time, NZ also wore the only YC that day. ABs won 32-16. Any examples that one sided from your end? - just saying :)

billtongbek... thanks but what I do not want to do is whinge because we lost, even though it pains me, it will not change the result .. its already in the history books ... others more qualified than me are talking about the referee ..

Watched this game this morning, terrible game of Rugby made so by a very sub standard Reffing display. Whatever the reason, he is just not up to Super Rugby standard.

you are right, sorry, he was the touchie, just shows neutral refs are a must, especially come finals time. Stormers and Lions will get enormous leg up if they have home town refs for the qf's.

I am sure tha Harry knew about the ref and his weaknesses before tipping the Stormers, I wish I had the same info before making my call.