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Opinionated Rugby Commentary - by Fans for Fans
Spill what you really think about events in the rugby world.
All Blacks Gifted Rugby World Cup By Referee 5 views
26 October 2011 by The Swede Eaters
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Referee Craig Joubert is under fire from people overseas for his performance on Sunday night. Scotty Donaldson looks at the situation.
Watch this video which makes a strong case that referee Craig Joubert
gifted New Zealand the Rugby World Cup 2011 with his non-refereeing at
the breakdown. This performance reminds me of New Zealand's own Bryce
Lawrence who performed a similar role in the South Africa vs Australia
game.
While I am an avid New Zealand and All Blacks fan, I must
admit that most of these don't look good, but I did see some similar
situations where the ball randomly popped back on the France side and
they weren't penalised as well. I thought at the time that Dusautoir
should have been awarded a penalty in the first half as shown on the
video highlights above.
As New Zealand discovered in Cardiff
four years ago, you have to play to referee and if he lets you infringe
at the breakdown without penalising you then you must do what you have
to do. That Jerome Kaino one was a shocker though.
It seems that
refereeing will always play a massive role in rugby where the rules are
so open to interpretation to the extent where I think you could have
looked at some of the French team and pinpointed areas where they
offended. But I admit that the All Blacks did get the favourable calls
probably because they were at home.
I saw Tony Woodcock being
eye gouged in a maul in the first half, while Richie McCaw was also eye
gouged. I also remember seeing at least one time when the ball popped
out of a ruck and a French player popped it back to his team.
That Morgan Parra offside was fine because unlike Kieran Read being offside, he was involved in the play.
People
consider Craig Joubert a great referee because he doesn't blow it up at
every breakdown, but should we now be encouraging referees to blow up
every breakdown which would stop play completely? If referees followed
rugby rules to the letter of the law, there would be 100 penalties per
match and the game would be boring and the score would be divisible by
three.
You have to play to the referee and I am pleased that for
a change we did this well. I would like to thank France for showing up
to play and I hope Craig Joubert's gold watch looks good!
In
summary, the All Blacks got more favourable calls than France mainly to
do with the non refereeing of the breakdown, but you have to play to
the referee and how liberal they are because if rugby was refereed to
the letter of the law, then there would be penalties blown every thirty
seconds, the score would be divisible by three and no one would watch
it.
I would love to hear your view on this, especially neutrals and people from France!
To watch the video analysis to see what I am talking about then go to my website. I am interested to hear your reaction!
rugbyworldcuptips.com
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