That well known supporter of referees has decided it's all our fault.
"Errors by Owens prove referees are ruining rugby
International Rugby board needs to get a handle on the laws of the game as rugby's best ref has bad day at the office
Stephen Jones Published: 8 June 2014
Comment (4)
Print
THE ever-increasing prospect is that next year’s World Cup will be won (or lost) by a referee. The International Rugby Board long ago lost its grip on the laws of the game, the way they are interpreted and the consistency with which they are applied.
Events at Eden Park underlined that even the world champion team can have a grevious off day, and so can the man seen by many as the best referee in the world — Nigel Owens, of Wales.
Some examples. One of the fundamental laws of rugby, the forward pass, has evolved well beyond pantomime status because the IRB introduced a fatuous concept of physics into its application, so that forward passing is now effectively allowed. Yesterday, Owens appeared to have rewritten another simple and basic law, the knock-on.
Many times he blew his whistle and awarded a scrum when the ball had plainly been knocked back. He awarded a knock-on by Freddie Burns when there was absolutely no chance from any angle or any interpretation that the ball had not gone yards backwards.
If that added elements of farce, then there was worse to come for England. With just more than 10 minutes remaining, Owens sent England’s Marland Yarde to the sin-bin for not rolling away after a tackle. Opinions were later divided as to whether this was justified, with the majority claiming that he was correct.
But after the game, England’s coach, Stuart Lancaster, referred to “one or two things I am sure we need to look at again”. Two things, to be exact. In England’s first real attack, after Chris Robshaw had burst through the home defence, the supporting James Haskell was held back off the ball by Ma’a Nonu, who grabbed Haskell’s shirt and held on for some time.
It is the sort of offence for which the yellow card was created but Owens allowed Nonu to stay on the field.
Even worse, in the second half there was an offence which almost precisely replicated that of Yarde. New Zealand’s Ben Smith was penalised for killing a play right on the New Zealand line, (with England driving forward hungrily) by not rolling away. It was the same offence for which Yarde was later sent to the sin-bin and, again, the New Zealand man escaped.
It could at least be said that this was a rare off- day for Owens. The problem is that the bigger picture is becoming increasingly blurred, the game is disappearing up its own backside through bogus slants on old laws, or by the failure to apply recent laws. Strictness on policing the rear-feet offside line, the crooked scrum feed, the offside kick chase, and illegal ruck entry, has disappeared at enormous cost to the game.
Who is responsible for the carnage? The international referees’ manager is a Frenchman, Joel Jutge. In any remake of the Invisible Man, he will be a shoo-in for the title role. There is never any explanation for anything at any time, still less anyone admitting any errors.
No doubt Nigel Owens will be back on form by his next game, if a little late for England. Sadly, he will be refereeing against a backdrop of anarchy. "