Referees emerge with little credit

by Brendan Cole

This has not been a good series for the refereeing fraternity.

First off; between them Bryce Lawrence and Christophe Berdos have failed to referee the scrum correctly in either Test match. In the first, Lawrence failed to ensure that Tendai Mtawirara scrum in a straight line rather than inwards, directly influencing the outcome of the match. In the second, Berdos on several occasions failed to award the Lions penalties for the South African scrum either standing up or wheeling.

They have also made a good deal of poor individual decisions, not least their failure to send Schalk Burger off immediately for gouging.

There have been other incidents. For example, it is quite clear that Christophe Berdos was wrong to give a scrum to South Africa over the Brian O’Driscoll tackle on Danie Roussouw. The call should either have been a penalty to South Africa or play on, in which case play would have restarted with a lineout to the Lions as Frans Steyn was run into touch just inside the Lions 22. Instead, a scrum was given and Brian Habana scored South Africa’s second try to make it 15-19 with 18 minutes to go.

CORRECTION: In this incident, Berdos held out his arm as though to signal advantage but the lineout was played. That lineout was called crooked in, and the scrum came from there (see comments below).

The poor officiating has continued off the field. Burger (8 weeks) and Bakkies Botha (2 weeks) have both been banned and the citing officer has clearly gotten both badly wrong.

View Schalk Burger’s gouge on Luke Fitzgerald.

Obviously, Burger’s 8-week ban is ludicrously light given the seriousness of the offence he committed. Reviewing the incident, it is obvious that Burger has his middle finger sticking directly into Luke Fitzgerald’s eye. It is only because Fitzgerald rolls over that Burger gets caught.

To give some context, Sergio Parisse has been given an 8-week ban for this offence, also committed on Saturday.

The Parisse incident is bad, but not as bad. It is a pull across the eye rather than a dig directly into it and happens from behind. But, in my view, it is still deserving of at least double the 8-week sentence and probably more. In truth, it is distasteful to have to even comment on eye-gouging in this way. Unfortunately, poor officiating means the whole system has been jeopardised.

Burger’s ban is 8-weeks where the maximum ban is two years. The obvious question is ‘what would a player have to do to get a two year ban?'

All in all, Saturday goes down as a victory for the thugs.

The citing commissioner has also banned Bakkies Botha for two weeks.

As everyone knows, Botha is South Africa’s resident hardman. He is not a character for which opposition supporters have much affection and has in his time been involved in various types of illegal play. Loose elbows, taking out players in the air, and dangerous rucking are all part of his previous record.

However, this time the South Africans are right to be aggrieved.

View Bakkies Botha’s hit on Adam Jones.

View a fully legitimate version of the same type of hit at RWC 2007 (group match), with Ben Kay on the receiving end this time. (Under the current rules, it is legitimate due to Botha’s binding on his own player prior to making the hit).

Botha’s hit has been commented on by various South African officials, including South Africa Players Association CEO Piet Heymans.

He said: “We are of the opinion that the IRB should have an urgent and serious relook at Law 10.4 (j) as clarity is required by the players otherwise it will become an enormous problem area in the game and it will certainly lead to a situation where South African teams will be negatively affected as they are not scared of contact, but enjoy taking on the opposition and attacking rucks which have been used very successfully by South African players.”

Leaving aside the sillier aspects of this statement, he has a point.

The counter argument is that the responsibility for rugby players to be mindful of their opponents’ safety is more important. In this case, Botha arguably made the hit on Jones with the intention of doing damage, and that is most likely why he has been banned.

10.4 broadly relating to dangerous play or misconduct. The relevant section (j) reads: “Players must not charge into a ruck or maul without binding onto a player in the ruck or maul.”

However, any honest assessment must conclude that if Botha is guilty of an offence it is on the minor end of the scale, and that a two-week ban is unfair. Botha’s hit – much like O’Driscoll’s on Roussouw – should go down as hard but at least 95% legitimate.

Though it may not suit the Lions or their fans, Botha deserves to play in the final Test (Burger should be out of the game for a year).

Both incidents represent a bad week for a refereeing body that is frequently held up as an example of how things should be done to other sports.