Does Mark Lawrence have a case to answer after his officiating of the game between England and Ireland at Twickenham?
I’m not a big fan of blaming the referee and think that the odd dodgy decision is part of the game, but Lawrence has attracted some criticism and even Martin Johnson has voiced his displeasure.
The Breakdown
This appeared to be something of a lottery all afternoon, and from where I was sitting, it was never quite clear which way the decision would go. I cannot claim an objective standpoint (who can?), but it seemed as if Ireland were favoured slightly in this department.
The Care / O’Leary shenanigans
I’m not defending the actions of Danny Care who made more of a situation than he needed to, but this episode really was just handbags. The penalty had been awarded, and O’Leary wouldn’t yield the ball to his opposite number. Granted, Care shouldn’t have slammed him on his back, but if anything, the reaction of Stephen Ferris who came steaming in was worse.
The penalty was reversed harshly, and Ireland put themselves in a position to score, and duly obliged.
That Driving Maul
This was the most bizarre decision. With a couple of minutes to go, England won a lineout and set up a driving maul that steamed towards Ireland’s line. It was pulled down a couple of times, and England did well to get it going again.
Five metres short, it was pulled down again and the ball was irretrievably stuck at the bottom. The referee’s decision: scrum to Ireland. Lawrence must have thought that the maul had stopped and the ball had been held up by Ireland, but that seems a very strange conclusion to reach after such a long drive and two or three penalty offences by Ireland.
As I said, this isn’t an invitation for referee abuse, and generally, I think Lawrence is an excellent referee. But these were crucial moments in a close match, and it’s difficult to argue that they had no bearing on the result.
I don’t really understand why so many Southern Hemisphere refs are used in the 6 Nations either. They rarely use ours in the Tri-Nations. We’re complaining about the inconsistencies in refereeing this season but if we don’t give our refs exposure at the highest, most intense level, they won’t improve. It’s the same for reffing as for playing.
Re the Care incident, it irritates me when referees overturn decisions on the touch judge’s advice even when they have seen the incident themselves and come to a different conclusion. When was the last time you saw a ref say ‘thanks mate, but I saw it too and I disagree with you, I’m sticking with the original decision’. Always going with the touch judge under these circumstances strikes me as a cop out.
Just to add fuel to the fire, I,m surprised that there weren’t a lot more penalties against England for lazy running, or failing to retire quick enough. Here is the Southern Hemisphere, refs are quick to blow on these offences.
A couple of things stick out to me:
Funny you should mention the failing to retire, Alan — I thought Ireland were consistently guilty of that, too. Nothing compared to the Welsh against England, though, who were almost South African in their levels of disregard for the laws.
For every forward pass or offside kick-chaser penalised, there were probably three or four that weren’t. This seems increasingly to be the case — slightly forward passes, like feeding the back row in the scrum, seem increasingly to be accepted…
… or at least not caught or penalised, which leads to my main point: it seems that increased scrutiny on the rugby pitch hasn’t brought fairer play. Rather, it has just shown players what they can get away with and where, and shown spectators and coaches the extent of the misbehaviour. We have “assistant referees” who are more involved than ever, if only to justify their presence, as in incidents of the type Stuart describes; we have fourth officials consulting the tapes almost every time the ball passes the tryline; we have citing officers pouring over tapes, and often picking up things like Dupuy and Attoub’s disgusting behaviour (did you know that there are at least FIVE Facebook groups dedicated to supporting Dupuy against the raking charges? FIVE!) The result is no doubt that we’re more aware of these things, but clearly it’s not dissuading anyone from gouging, punching, late tackles, high tackles, taking people out in the air or off the ball; it’s not stopping scrum-halves from holding each other back with more and more force at the put-in; it’s not stopping John Hayes from taking down every scrum he can get to in time. What the increased scrutiny HAS done is focus our attention of the failings of the referee — we all think we’re qualified referees now, without ever stopping to think about how one man can police the actions of 30 others, many of whom behave like delinquent teenagers (on steroids) most of the time, without being said to have ANY intrusive effect on the scoreline. What a job. I hope to Bill McLaren above that we don’t go the way of football in terms of the respect shown to these guys.
Here endeth the lesson!
howzit
I watched the ‘maul’ incident again and you are delusional. If you watch closely you will see that the Irish defence did nothing wrong. They did not drag down the maul ‘repeatedly’ as touted by a certain Martin Johnson. He has no cause for complaint and needs to resign with a level of dignity intact.
The Care incident: The whistle blew, then Care immediately grabs O’Leary and ball, then dumps him. Why is this not a reversal. The handbags shoving by Ferris and others is standard protection in a fracas.
No it is not like South Africa, this is more illusion, fact is England just constantly whinge about every refereee since the year dot.