While Noah Lolesio’s charged down field goal attempt was the ultimate decider in the Brumbies gut wrenching loss, departing coach Dan McKellar was fuming at a refereeing call moments before.
The Brumbies had the ball in Blues territory, 38 metres out in kickable range when Luke Reimer appeared to force a penalty with Luke Romano failing to release the ball at the breakdown.
The Brumbies players nearby shot their arms in the air in unison but Kiwi referee Ben O’Keeffe failed to spot an infringement.
The moment blew up social media and McKellar was clearly upset in the post-match press conference.
“There were a couple of decisions there that will be interesting to review,” McKellar said.
“Luke Reimer appeared to be well and truly on the ball directly in front of the posts. Did you guys see that?
“I saw Luke Reimer on the ball, surviving clean out directly in front of the posts.
“When you’re playing at Eden Park and an Australian team hasn’t won here forever and a day, you need a bit of luck, don’t you? And we just didn’t get that tonight.”
The Brumbies coach, who is leaving his post to join the Wallabies full time, also questioned the state of the game’s rulings on red and yellow cards.
He was without Test centre Len Ikitau after a ban and two Blues were sent to the sin bin for moments that could easily have been deemed reds.
“I’ve got 23 players and 15 staff in there [asking] what is the game doing around cards,” McKellar said.
“I’ve got Len Ikitau sitting in the grandstand for an accident last week – hasn’t been able to play, possibly won’t play against England in the first Test match. We had a guy tipped on his head, we’ve got head-on-head contact. One’s a yellow, one’s a red.
“And I’m not complaining just about tonight but as a game… Last night [it was the same] as well with the Crusaders and the Chiefs. What direction are we going here because players don’t know what’s yellow, what’s red. I don’t know what it is. How’s Joe Public going to have any idea?
“I sat in on Len Ikitau’s hearing during the week and to me there are just so many accidents that happen in a collision sport. I’m not sitting here saying Blues boys should have been red-carded or whatever but as a game, it’s really hard to follow at the moment in terms of which way it may go.
“Common sense, isn’t it? If someone throws a stiff arm or punches someone or eye gouges someone or stands on someone, throw the book at them. No one wants players getting concussed and that sort of thing but there’s accidents.”
The Brumbies charged home after being down 20-7 with two rolling maul tries for substitute hooker Lachie Lonergan. Lolesio failed to convert the first and his drop goal attempt in the dying seconds, which seemed premature with the Brumbies controlling the ball, was charged down by Blue Ofa Tu’ungafasi.
“We showed a lot of heart there during the second half, gave ourselves an opportunity to win that game, but didn’t quite ice it at the end … I’m just pretty disappointed at the moment,” captain Allan Alaalatoa told Stan Sport.
“The spirit in our team is huge, we knew it was going to take a hell of an effort for us to come out here and get the job done.
“We spoke about collisions, set-piece … our set-piece really brought us home there in the second half. The boys showed a lot of heart especially there in the last five or so minutes.”
Blues flyhalf Beauden Barrett was the dangerman again, running for 99 metres.
“I’ve got a lot of trust in the lads, we’ve got to give it to (the Brumbies), they could have easily run away with that one,” Barrett told Stan Sport.
“We knew we had to fight hard and work hard together to close that out.
“Those sort of moments (Tu’ungafasi’s chargedown) you’ve just got to be alive for and look for … his edge is exceptional and we needed the big fella to stand up in that moment.”
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Did you watch the press conference, or just reacting to the bit the media are running with...
Wally James
Roar Guru
I would expect him to say something gracious in defeat. Something inspiring. Something about how well both teams played. How good the crowd was, for example. How lucky professional rugby players are to play the game they love and get paid for it. How much they enjoyed the season but were beaten on the day by a better team. Something like that. In short, I would expect him to say something which shows respect and good leadership. I would not expect him to show disrespect for the game, players and officials by pointing out what he considered to be ref’s mistakes.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
“His team was robbed by a doggy call in the last minute.” - Bobby Brums lost it themselves (irrespective of BOK).
ME
Guest
Yep, change will happen. With all the abuse being thrown at the refs, then there wont be anymore refs. Then you wont be crying about bad reffing as there won't be a game. As for concussion, when the national unions start getting sued, which they would have, then they would have started taking notice, with or without the media. Funnily enough the only country where they can't sue for injury is NZ, they can only sue for deliberate negligence.
RayinSydney
Roar Rookie
Go back through the game, look at every single action at any given minute during the game and you'll see something wrong somewhere, the refs call it as they see it, like it or not, saying he should suffer serious consequence's and is negligent is simply ridiculous. The old saying of taking the ref out of the equation applies constantly in sport, simply score more points throughout the previous 79 minutes so you don't have to rely on an 80th minute ref decision that might go against you. Bleating about refs is getting tiring, there's no game without them. The ref wasn't the clown who had a 40m drop goal charged down by a slow moving prop with 30sec to go..I'd be looking at things like that which had far more effect on the Brumbies losing the game.
Bobby
Roar Rookie
Sub standard performance by Ref's has to called out, otherwise change ( fir the better) doesn't occur. Do people really think that the "concussion" issue surrounding high tackles would have happened ( or happening) without media focus ! It's a no brainer !
Harry Jones
Expert
Reimer went ahead and stole it so it’s not easy to award the penalty. It’s only a penalty if the attacker holds on to the ball. Clever boy: he gave it to Reimer. The most experienced jackals make a meal of that: sell the pilfer. Don’t take it; just hold it and push it on to the tackled carrier and get smashed by cleaners. #pocock
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Pretty sure I didnt.... :laughing:
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Yeah agree. I think its mainly about emotion at the moment in time but there are many coaches who handle it better than McKellar does. He appears to be angry rather than a controlled whinge around decisions. He could learn a better way.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
I think you're wrong. I don't believe what McKellar did was remotely constructive or likely to deliver a positive outcome
savant
Roar Rookie
I have only ever seen one constructive outcome of 'the process'. The dropping of the Argentianian referee (Anselmi?) after a laughable second half of penalties in a Reds vs Jaguars match a few years back. And only then after a lot of negative public press. Im not even sure Egon Seconds was dropped after the most biased refereeing anyone had ever seen in SA (20-1 penalty count against Rebels). In the hundreds of other games of SR, teams file a report on officiating which appear to have no bearing on appointments or pay for the referees. Occasionally if its incredibly obvious there will be a letter of apology to the team badly done by. But the referees are not sanctioned, fined, or dropped - unlike players. Theres really no consequence for referees. Now dont get me wrong, I have enormous respect for referees and we wouldn't be able to play without them, but lets be honest here - the kiwi officials have been laughing at us for years, particularly when kiwi Lyndon Bray was the Sanzar game manager. How can a 'process' with no consequence have any beneficial effect? The truth it is only the public forum that can have any constructive outcome on performance.
Trytime
Guest
Sorry lucky phil but that was not a penalty.... becooooooooz .......... the ref didnt give it! So nope not a penalty!!!
Wigeye
Guest
Thats a long bleat nearly fell asleep
WEST
Roar Guru
Yeah I heard and read about it.. He was half reasonable this time.. But his complaining has been on going whenever they lose. It’s pretty weak
Loosey
Roar Rookie
I don’t think McKellar is blaming one call. Did you sit in on their debrief? I’m sure there will be plenty of mistakes pointed out that could have changed the outcome. But in the 78th minute, there was a blatant penalty that could have been given. They would still have to kick it though. So not too ridiculous to suggest that it would have changed the outcome. Is it the refs fault? No. Are refs perfect? Also no. McKellar even goes on to say you need a bit of luck at Eden Park. So they were unlucky.
Loosey
Roar Rookie
So you agree he's right?
AndyS
Guest
Have to agree, it is becoming a significant concern. Genuine question: Does it feel like there has been a step increase in incidents as soon as they softened the penalty and introduced mitigations? It previously felt that they had cracked down and everyone knew tipping was a red that you could go argue with the judiciary. Right or wrong, it just feels like there didn't used to be so many incidents testing the resolve.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Love to see the transcript of the post game speech you would have given if you were in his shoes. FFS, he just lost let him vent for a minute or two.
AndyS
Guest
Cheers KCOL, and I know you are right, Paulo indeed seems a good bloke contributing much. And you may well be right about why he disagrees with me, as is his right, but if so he can rest assured I have no strong feelings either way on the refs, more that one particular incident.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Wally, what would you expect the coach of the losing side to say just after they have been bundled out of the finals by not being awarded what was a clear penalty?