Will RWC refs treat all sides in the same way????

My lasting memory of Wales/Fiji in the last RWC was the number of high/late tackles which went unpunished.Wales deserved to lose as they played terribly but I wonder if Little had been dealt with accordingly whether the result may have been different.
The day of the overexhuberant plucky south sea islanders must now be behind us and these cheap shots must be erradicated.

I know what you mean, however I do think that there will always be a bit of leniancy shown towards 'lower' nations when it comes the RWC. Whether it is suspect tackling, or poor scrumaging etc.

Way I see it there are no biased referees, just biased fans.

Refs will ref the usual way. Some calls will go for our teams. Some will go against our teams.

However I don't agree that refs will be making allowances and turning a blind eye to cheap shots.

No, referees are human and as much as their intention is to go into a match with an open mind they are impressionable by suggestive media.

If Declan Kidney say to the media before the match that Bakkies Botha tends to go outside the law with his exhuberance to clear rucks. the referee will naturally be watching Bakkies more and often not notice that O'Connol os doing the same thing.

If Robbie Deans says before the (possible) final against NZ that Richie McCaw plays outside the laws and Franks often stands in an offside position at rucks preventing the opposition to clear, the referee will watch them more and not notice Pocock is doing the exact same thing.

Captains such as Richie McCaw can influence a referees awareness of things because of his way he deals with them.

Only human, my friend.

High tackles and cheap shots are not the sole preserve of the 'plucky south sea islanders'.

I just hope this world cup doesn't have a lot of whinging about referees. It probably will though as it's human nature.

The only time you need four question marks is when you're asking four questions.

Allowances have been made for "minnows" and you would have to be blinkered not to have spotted this.In amateur days this was just about ok but now the Game is professional both sides must get the same treatment.

red_stag wrote:Way I see it there are no biased referees, just biased fans.

Refs will ref the usual way. Some calls will go for our teams. Some will go against our teams.

However I don't agree that refs will be making allowances and turning a blind eye to cheap shots.

+1

Fiji were nearly reff'ed off the pitch in their recent match against Japan, with at least two players receiving bans in addition to the yellow or red cards they got during the game - seemed some of the calls were highly questionable, other were spot on - it's the roll of the dice

luckless_pedestrian wrote:The only time you need four question marks is when you're asking four questions.

Need and want are not the same.Nice of you to exercise your freedom of expression.I will do the same,thanks all the same.

I? am? confused?

Sorry there was no question there!!!!

have the refs been picked yet ????

Yep

Craig Joubert (South Africa), Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Nigel Owens (Wales), Steve Walsh (Australia), George Clancy (Ireland), Alain Rolland (Ireland), Dave Pearson (England), Wayne Barnes (England), Romain Poite (France), Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand).

Taffineastbourne wrote:

luckless_pedestrian wrote:The only time you need four question marks is when you're asking four questions.

Need and want are not the same.Nice of you to exercise your freedom of expression.I will do the same,thanks all the same.

No problem, Taff!!!!

geoff998rugby wrote:Yep

Craig Joubert (South Africa), Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Nigel Owens (Wales), Steve Walsh (Australia), George Clancy (Ireland), Alain Rolland (Ireland), Dave Pearson (England), Wayne Barnes (England), Romain Poite (France), Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand).

Twas Peter Fitzgibbon who had the 'interesting' game with Japan vs Fiji, aided and abetted by Marius Jonker - was amazed how out of puff Fitzgibbon looked

I like Fitzgibbon, looks like a bloke my Dad worked with so I always end up laughing when he is on the pitch.

I will assume that there will be plenty of whinging about ref's decisions in the RWC. It is often the easiest was for a fan to feel hard done by. I include myself in this statement (I definitely am not above blaming a ref if my team isn't winning!).

But most of the 'bias' tends to appear when multiple infringements happen at the one time and a ref is blowing up for the first thing he sees. I almost always feel the ref plays and calls what he sees in front of him. He doesn't have 360degree vision of the breakdown, can't see inside a scrum, doesn't have eyes in the back of his head for catching late hits/blocking etc.

I say almost above, because there is 1 game in recent memory which seemed to move past a ref blowing what he saw in front of him. And that was the final moments of the Amlin final. In that game, Clancy seemed to lose his bottle at the scrum and was shouting for the ball to be moved away so he wouldn't have to give a penalty/reset as a penalty would have changed the result and he didn't seem to have confidence that making the call in that situation was going to be the right call. I've serious doubts about a crunch game in the RWC with him holding the whistle.

I can forgive a ref making a wrong decision or a mistake. We all make mistakes, but I do have a problem if a ref doesn't have the confidence to back himself to make the decision at the big moment.

But on the OP question???? - I don't think this RWC will have refs treating sides differently.

There is a clear difference in the way a NH ref offciates when comapred to a SH ref.

Sh refs dont seem to care about the scrum or know how its supposed to work.

munkian wrote:There is a clear difference in the way a NH ref offciates when comapred to a SH ref.

Sh refs dont seem to care about the scrum or know how its supposed to work.

munkian wrote:There is a clear difference in the way a NH ref offciates when comapred to a SH ref.

Sh refs dont seem to care about the scrum or know how its supposed to work.

SH refs aren't fussed about forward passes either...

I think there will be inconsistancies in the way teams and players are refereed. Certain players like Botha, Burger etc. have reputations which preceed them and maybe are less likely to get the benefit of the doubt from the referee. Likewise certain players like McCaw and O'Driscoll are so highly respected in the game they maybe get away with things others wouldn't some times.

Certainly the minnows are less likely to get 50/50 calls in their favour than the big guns.

I've always been of the opinion that the PI sides are heavily penalised for their physical approach in general, "on suspicion" as it were, rather than by considering the legality of each individual tackle.

The recent Aus/Samoa game is a good case. What was with that "late tackle" call in the first half. It was just wrong.

Thought Fiji were unlucky to concede a penalty try v NZ also.

Unfortunately I see the remnants of systemic racism here. It goes hand in hand with that "South Sea Islander" notion that is unfortunately still prominent, even by posters here who should know better.

There was a penalty given to SA because OZ 'put too much pressure on the scrum' which I didnt understand.

Surely thats the aim ?

Munkian - Nigel Owens is a top NH referee but he referees scrums badly. Roman Poite is very poor. Equally SH referees like Stuart Dickinson are poor at the scrum.

Just like some players have strenghts and weaknesses, so do referees. It isn't a NH v SH thing.

TheGreyGhost wrote:I've always been of the opinion that the PI sides are heavily penalised for their physical approach in general, "on suspicion" as it were, rather than by considering the legality of each individual tackle.

The recent Aus/Samoa game is a good case. What was with that "late tackle" call in the first half. It was just wrong.

Thought Fiji were unlucky to concede a penalty try v NZ also.

Unfortunately I see the remnants of systemic racism here. It goes hand in hand with that "South Sea Islander" notion that is unfortunately still prominent, even by posters here who should know better.

Saddened by the racist slur but it is an open forum so you can expect all sorts on here.I am a slightly embittered old fogey who subconsciously compares what Paul Ringer got red carded for nearly doing as opposed to a number of instances in the Wales/Fiji match at the last RWC.
Didnt catch the Aus/Fiji game but if Fitzgibbon was the ref nothing would surprise me.

Racist slur ?

roddersm wrote:
Certainly the minnows are less likely to get 50/50 calls in their favour than the big guns.

Certainly? We have that in proof or just opinion form?


I forget who said it now but one of my favourite 606 quotes was " Wales suffer from only getting about half the 50/50 calls in our favour"

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:I forget who said it now but one of my favourite 606 quotes was " Wales suffer from only getting about half the 50/50 calls in our favour"

That's a gem!

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

geoff998rugby wrote:Yep

Craig Joubert (South Africa), Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Nigel Owens (Wales), Steve Walsh (Australia), George Clancy (Ireland), Alain Rolland (Ireland), Dave Pearson (England), Wayne Barnes (England), Romain Poite (France), Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand).

Twas Peter Fitzgibbon who had the 'interesting' game with Japan vs Fiji, aided and abetted by Marius Jonker - was amazed how out of puff Fitzgibbon looked

In fairness some of the tackles in that game were a disgrace. Dropping people on their heads etc.

luckless_pedestrian wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:I forget who said it now but one of my favourite 606 quotes was " Wales suffer from only getting about half the 50/50 calls in our favour"

That's a gem!

Fantastic.