Matt Carley

SimonSmith


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I'll probably end up swearing at him as I try to blame anyone other than the team for the ritual spanking, but his first penalty?

Scotland kick ahead. Chaser gets nudged out the way by NZ moving lane. Scotland player goes to ground so he doesn't hit the jumping receiver. PK to Scotland.

I wish more referees did that.
 

crossref


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I thought that was an assured performance on his biggest game to date.
Similarly Ben O Keefe in the England game. Exciting to see next generation of refs coming through.
 

ChuckieB

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I thought that was an assured performance on his biggest game to date.
Similarly Ben O Keefe in the England game. Exciting to see next generation of refs coming through.

Thought BO had a good one, totally outclassed the reffing performance of SB from the commentary box. He's not just seasoned but well past his sell by date IMO!
 

dave_clark


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try to blame anyone other than the team for the ritual spanking,

i bet you've rarely been happier to eat your words!

so, so close. wasn't a gimme at the end, but had the offload gone to hand...

just a shame that it was Hogg that lost it forward, apart from that he had a brilliant game.
 

beckett50


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Only watched the highlights but agree that both Matt Carley and Ben O'Keefe had assured performances.
 

Christy


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I couldnt beleive scotland took scrum penalty 5 meters from nz try line , even with 7 man nz scrum .
They were never going to go any where than scrum half passing ball from scrum ..they should of tapped & gone ..thought scots put on a good show over all . Hogg is at his prime
 

timmad

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Generally agree, a good game BUT Black 14 surely should have gone for tackling / colliding with White 15 while in the air.
Also dismayed at the typical gracelessness that the ABs displayed, e.g. timewasting near the end of the game, a player about to be substituted attempted to use time by kneeling to tie his bootlace. Credit to the ref who stopped the clock and spoke to him.
If you are the best team in the world surely you want to demonstrate it by playing a beautiful game - sorry, I know it's a familiar tune.
(While only 1/16th Scottish - less than most Kiwis probably - I confess to watching through slightly thistle-coloured glasses.)
 

crossref


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Also, if I am not wrong, at a lineout Carley gave a FK for time wasting didn't he ? You don't see that very often
 

SimonSmith


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On balance I thought he had an assured performance, and he didn't affect the outcome in reality. if I were to complain:

1. Black 14 should have gone. The TMO walked him back from his original decision, which I thought was right on balance.
2. He can get pedantic. A number of penalties (against both sides) that left me wondering if that was really necessary and did it affect play? Peter Horne's was one example - that was a PK that didn't need to be given.
3. He's erratic at the breakdown. AN absolute SOB about getting everyone to release - but when the tackle assist arrived, there were a lot of times the hands went beyond the ball and came back in a scooper motion. Barnes and Doyle are SOBs on that kind of thing, and I was disappointed that he wasn't.
4. When the NZ tackler - and I'm looking meaningfully at Black 9 - made a tackle, if he got to his feet to come back to the gate, he made a point fo finding the long way round and coming over the ball. Someone in white should have just nailed him and made a point of it. Given what Carley WAS penalizing (see 3), the fact that he let that go was bemusing.

I don't know if we saw a good Scottish performance (and given what has happened with injuries, I think we did) or an NZ team in decline. I expected us to ship 20+, and we were a knock on away from a tie.
 

damo


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NZ team is definitely in decline. They've been unquestionably no. 1 for 7 years and are finally coming back to the pack. This isn't a bad thing really.

I thought the ref was good for the most part. He was a little pedantic at times, but no complaints for any of the big calls IMO from either team.
 

Pinky


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On balance I thought he had an assured performance, and he didn't affect the outcome in reality. if I were to complain:

1. Black 14 should have gone. The TMO walked him back from his original decision, which I thought was right on balance.
2. He can get pedantic. A number of penalties (against both sides) that left me wondering if that was really necessary and did it affect play? Peter Horne's was one example - that was a PK that didn't need to be given.
3. He's erratic at the breakdown. AN absolute SOB about getting everyone to release - but when the tackle assist arrived, there were a lot of times the hands went beyond the ball and came back in a scooper motion. Barnes and Doyle are SOBs on that kind of thing, and I was disappointed that he wasn't.
4. When the NZ tackler - and I'm looking meaningfully at Black 9 - made a tackle, if he got to his feet to come back to the gate, he made a point fo finding the long way round and coming over the ball. Someone in white should have just nailed him and made a point of it. Given what Carley WAS penalizing (see 3), the fact that he let that go was bemusing.

I don't know if we saw a good Scottish performance (and given what has happened with injuries, I think we did) or an NZ team in decline. I expected us to ship 20+, and we were a knock on away from a tie.

Simon, I agree with the points you make. When the TMO asked and was then silent about MC's idea about the hit on Hogg, I thought he was going to suggest red as he not only took him in the air, but actually collided heads and black 14 had already skelped the Scotland 9 out of the way. That seemed to upset his refereeing as prior to that I thought he had been excellent. The other issue I would raise is that he seemed to allow NZ to be offside at the breakdown close to the line and he did not seem to mind about high tackles very often and there were quite a few in the second half in particular.
 

damo


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Simon, I agree with the points you make. When the TMO asked and was then silent about MC's idea about the hit on Hogg, I thought he was going to suggest red as he not only took him in the air, but actually collided heads and black 14 had already skelped the Scotland 9 out of the way. That seemed to upset his refereeing as prior to that I thought he had been excellent. The other issue I would raise is that he seemed to allow NZ to be offside at the breakdown close to the line and he did not seem to mind about high tackles very often and there were quite a few in the second half in particular.
I didn't see anything like a red in the Naholo tackle. The player landed on his feet. In actual fact on first viewing I thought he might have even landed before contact (I was wrong clearly). I thought a YC would have been harsh.

Still, to change the subject slightly, Naholo is a walking liability. He gave away 3 stupid PK's that I saw. For all his immense talent he just isn't up to it mentally at this level.
 

Ian_Cook


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I agreed with Graham Hughes convincing Carley to not give a YC for Black 14. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that White 9 intentionally obstructed Black 14. He ran a line across and in front of that player's line as he was about to jump to compete for the ball. Correct decision IMO, and I hope this is the beginning of some commonsense being applied to these situations.

I thought Carley had a pretty good game, I have only a couple of minor criticisms

1. While he was hot on offside near the goal-line, he seemed to forget about it in the middle of the field. There were times when the first receiver got the ball at the same time as the opposing midfield defence. They were clearly offside.

2. A couple of times he PK tackled players for holding on when the tacklers were still holding onto the tackled player and preventing that player from placing the ball.

3. I thought the YC against Crockett was harsh. The White SH put his hands on the ball, moved the ball back and took them off again. This is actually a practice I would like to see stopped. Some SHs really take the piss, rolling ball back up to metre and not actually picking it up. IMO, once the SH puts his hands on the ball, he should have to keep them on it until he lifts it.

There is another practice I have been seeing this season which is beginning to annoy me, and that is tacklers who roll away to one side and then run around behind the opposition ruck to get onside. I know why they do this... its to slow down opposition ball distribution by getting themselves in the eyeline of the SH. The tackler rolling away or any player who ends up on the wrong side of the ruck should be required to take the shortest route to their own offside line.
 

crossref


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Points 3 and 4 I completely agreed with. I really noticed 3 on the Lions tour with Rhys Webb , and there is a thread on it.
I tell scrum halves , exactly as Ian suggests , they can't handle it and then let go of it.
 

irishref


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Point 3 Ian Cook:

It's still illegal to dive onto a ball immediately after a ruck is it not?

If we agree that the Scottish SH had taken the ball out of the ruck (and I don't agree), you still can't have opposition players diving over what was the ruck to kill the ball.

I do agree that some SHs do take the proverbial and use their feet to pull a ball too far towards themselves and thus out of the ruck!
 

Pegleg

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Points 3 and 4 I completely agreed with. I really noticed 3 on the Lions tour with Rhys Webb , and there is a thread on it.
I tell scrum halves , exactly as Ian suggests , they can't handle it and then let go of it.

WR caused / made the problem worse by their "lifted out" directive.
 

ChuckieB

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There are those that advocate that a team winning the ball should be allowed the latitude to set up their next phase of play. This inevitably means the SH will manoeuvre the ball with hands, feet or otherwise into the best position.

I am personally not an advocate of allowing things to be slowed down excessively in this way. If I see it there and available I will be calling for the ball to be used to force the issue. It's about the only real option to the ref under the circumstances and within the laws as they stand.
 

Pinky


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Ian, I am not convinced he was hot or effective at getting players onside near the line, but I do agree with you that he missed a few in midfield, but that is also and AR issue, not just his.

Re 2, the current advice is that you should penalise the tackled player for holding on if he prevents the arriving player playing the ball, regardless of what the tackler has done. I couldn't see whether that was what he was doing, but there were a couple of odd penalties where his signal just didn't seem to make sense.

Re 3, I think the YC was after a string of penalties and advantages and was blatantly playing the 9 when he didn't have the ball, but I agree with you that I think letting the 9 pull the ball out, put it down and still expect protection should be ruled out of the game. Neither the Scotland 9 nor the NZ 9 were/are particularly noted for this and neither side yesterday was ever really interested in slowing the game down once the ball was there to be played.
 

Ian_Cook


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Point 3 Ian Cook:

It's still illegal to dive onto a ball immediately after a ruck is it not?

Yes, but that is not what he was PK for!
 
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