LIMITING THE POWER OF THE WHISTLE
There are no doubt a lot of Australian rugby supporters celebrating
our victory over the Springboks yesterday. There are also a number of
us that are wondering how on earth we managed to pull it off against a
side that dominated possession and territory and lineouts. Now, I
don't want to take anything away from the Australian victory – our
boys did perform superbly but on the day the Springboks were, we have
to admit, the better side. The boks, as always were magnanimous in
defeat with a somewhat pragmatic approach to the result. I wonder what
our boys would have said faced with the same situation of blatant
incompetence by Mr Bryce Lawrence.
I support Australia and always will but for those of us that believe
in fair play this was a hollow victory. This was very much like
fighting a worthy opponent with one arm strapped behind his back – it
leaves a bad taste. There were rumours about Mr Lawrence's
impartiality before kick-off from a lot of ex pat South Africans now
living in Australia but we tend to dismiss these conspiracy theories
with a grin. Certainly, Mr Lawrence's performance on the field did
nothing to dispel those theories. His performance was nothing short of
abysmal. He did not award the bok try because of a dubious forward
pass. I have looked and looked and to me, anyway, it did not look
forward. Minutes later when the boks once again breached our defences
and were well on the way to scoring another try, he called them back
for a forward pass. If the first call was contentious, there certainly
was nothing wrong with the second one. Here, I must ask – why not use
the "eye in the sky"? An impressive expensive piece of equipment that
should be used for such decisions.
He failed to penalise Pocock for slowing the ball down. If we had
played like that against the All Blacks, they would not have been so
quiet about it. – and rightly so. In the dying minutes of the game he
was in full view of at least 2 high tackles by our boys that went
unpunished. Any of these transgressions, if properly acted on, would
have surely given the game to the Boks with their advantage over
territory. To rub salt in the South African wounds, he awarded a high
tackle to the Wallabies for a chest high tackle.
We won, but did we really? Our sport has always been regarded as a
"hooligans game played by gentlemen" – If we do not want rugby union
to degenerate into a farce that soccer can become we need to make sure
that our refs are of suitable calibre. They need to be trustworthy
gentlemen.
Mr Lawrence, I would advise against any planned holidays to South
Africa for a couple of years.
Chris Davis
SA are too much lol
