AN ALL BLACK TALE

New Zealand went out of the world cup and their exit is now history. There were those who loaded the reasons for the All Blacks being stopped in their tracks on the shoulders of the referee. The IRB and its referee manager Paddy O' Brian defended strongly their decision and stood by Wayne Barnes the referee. At times the appointments may have been strange as one would have thought another referee may have been better. There were questions asked from the quarter final stage. The referees are appointed after careful consideration and not by one man. The morale of the issue is that the IRB and its referee manager stands by the decisions and the officials once the appointment is made. There was enormous upset in New Zealand about certain aspects of refereeing in the quarter-final against France which France won 20-18.

This was a much talked about issue not only in New Zealand but in many quarters of the rugby playing world. Sri Lanka too shared its thoughts on the subject. The points of contention and discussion included, the appointment, penalizing Ritchie Macaw, the yellow card for Luke McAlister, and the all important the forward pass, the penalty count etc;

Referee, Wayne Barnes, was young and inexperienced was what they said. His age and experience were known beforehand the selection committee of eminent persons went ahead with the appointment. Prior to this much talked about mistakes in the quarter final he refereed three matches in the World Cup and there were no complaints about his age and experience.

This was done by a selection committee, consisting of David Pickering, from Wales, the convener and included Kevin Bowring, a former international coach and representing the coaches , ex-Test referees , Tappe Henning of South Africa and Bob Francis of New Zealand, and the experienced assessor Michel Lamoille of France, supported by the, the IRB referee manager Paddy O'Brien of New. All top men in the trade who knew what they were doing.

Barnes like Steve Walsh started to referee at a very young age. Barnes 28 was two years older than Steve Walsh when he first refereed a Test. He has been refereeing for 11 years. He has been on England's panel of national referees for six years, and had refereed 12 Tests before the quarter-final. When André Watson went to the 1999 Rugby World Cup he had refereed ten Tests. He refereed the final. Gareth Edwards was 20 when appointed to captain Wales. What makes any body argue that Wayne was young and inexperienced? If Luke McAlister or Richie McCaw had tackled Traille, New Zealand might have been in the semi-final and all Barnes's "inexperience" would have been overlooked.

The first two penalties in the match were against Richie McCaw. Even a star player like McCaw is required to play within law, just as any other stronger force that is in the game .The first one was for not rolling away from the tackled player and , the second for being "off your feet and playing the ball".

The other point discussed is the yellow card. New Zealand collapses a maul and the referee plays advantage, noting the collapse. The French fly half Kicks and the French centre was impeded by McAlister on the follow. The referee, explains to the captain that there had been two actions, the collapsing of the maul and McAlister's blocking the centre He sends McAlister to the sin bin and penalizes New Zealand, enabling France to make the score 13-6. The fact that McAlister moved was on the centers line to obstruct and went out of his way to make contact would have been important to the referee in making his decision. That the action was so close to New Zealand goal-line would also have counted.

Then we have the issue of the forward pass. At a midfield scrum near their own 10-metre line, France is under pressure. It all looked ordinary till suddenly Traile bursts ahead through Luke McAlister and Richie McCaw. It is a sudden acceleration of speed and near the half-way line he slips a short pass to Michalak who changes the run of play and passes to the big centre who strides over for the try that proved to be the winning try. It is the pass from Traille to Michalak that has produced heated protest. The camera angle is a good one for the viewer and to suggest it was a forward pass. How does one of the best 12 referees in the world miss what we all can see? It's probably about the view. It's not that the referee does not know what a forward pass is. In this particular match there were 257 passes and it was one of them. First the obvious is the referee did not have a vantage point of the spectators nor did he have the slow motion replay. The speed of Traille's burst had left the referee slightly behind. The pass was a short one. That meant that the tackle area had numbers. It is not good that such a decision should so affect the outcome of the match but was it the sole contributor to All Black defeat.

The other issue is advantage which was not brought back. The All blacks had the freedom to play and they did it by attempting a drop goal. I t failed and why is it that you have to bring it back?