Sharks to blame, not ref
8 Mar 2010
Referee Paul Marks did not lose the Sharks the match against the Waratahs in Sydney, writes Keo in his weekly Business Day column.
The Sharks, low on confidence and low on luck but high on ill discipline, were the guilty parties in a fourth successive tournament defeat.
Marks did not stupidly trip a player when there was no danger of a try being scored. That stupidity and subsequent yellow card belonged to Jannie du Plessis. Marks did not cynically dive into a ruck to kill the ball 5m from his tryline. That desperation and subsequent yellow card belonged to Andy Goode.
Calls for a penalty try in the last moment of the match were also based on emotion because Marks, according to the laws, was not within his rights to award one. A penalty try is awarded when the referee is in no doubt a try would have been scored. Invariably penalty tries come from collapsed scrums a metre or five from the tryline or from any professional infringement committed by the defending players very close to their tryline. When Waratahs replacement centre Kurtley Beale went for the intercept, and on seeing he wasn’t going to get it deliberately knocked the ball down, there is no certainty that Ryan Kankowski (waiting to collect the pass) would have scored.
I would like to think Kankowski, one of the fastest loose forwards around, would have scored. So would Kankowski and his coach John Plumtree. But how would the referee have known Kankowski would not have spilled the pass, tripped or pulled a hamstring on his 30m run to the tryline? He couldn’t and that is why the right decision was made not to award the try.
Giving a penalty and the yellow card was good refereeing.
If the Sharks are brutal in their post-match assessment they will know they were not the victims in this match but the guilty parties.
It is the South African way to look to others for blame, but if the Sharks are to find some way back into the Super 14 playoffs the only ones they have to be finding fault with at the moment are themselves. Waratahs captain Phil Waugh is correct when he says the Sharks are too good a team to be zero from four. The Sharks should be in the playoffs with the quality of the squad and coaches. Ruan Pienaar should be playing flyhalf, primarily because it is in the national interest; not a former England international who would look more comfortable in the Vodacom Cup than he does in the Super 14. The selection of Andy Goode has to be questioned, as does the quality of the Sharks back play in the final 20 minutes. It was average.
The Tahs had just returned from SA and if we use the argument that any travelling team is most vulnerable in their first week it explains the Waratahs’ performance, that of the Brumbies, the Chiefs and the Hurricanes in Bloemfontein. It would be hypercritical to use the first-week travel curse as the reason our teams struggle in that first match overseas, but not attribute the same to overseas teams coming here or them returning home when our teams have been there a fortnight or more.
The Brumbies and Tahs players looked lethargic and the Canes appeared to still be in a time zone between Wellington and Johannesburg. The Cheetahs, always good for one big win at home in the competition, were outstanding, but all they did is what they do every year, which is knock one Kiwi or Aussie team over in Bloemfontein.
The Stormers also did nothing out of the ordinary in Cape Town in taking the five points from the Highlanders. It may seem a harsh call on a team that wins 33-0, but if the measurement is title contender then they simply played as you expect of a title contender. They won at home against an ordinary side that invariably struggles on the road. This tournament is about keeping perspective and the one thing its history shows is that the best teams win their home games.
The Bulls are doing this; the Stormers have been better this season than in the past and the Cheetahs never win enough home games to challenge for a position in the top 10.
It doesn’t mean you can’t revel in their Bloemfontein victory, but it has to be seen in the context of the 80 minutes and it should not create false expectation. Neither should the rain in Canberra make you believe the lame Lions will be anything but fodder.
303 Comments
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] Show All
9 Mar 2010, 11:27 am
My 295 was directed at Keo. Where did you find him?
9 Mar 2010, 11:29 am
Mark,
Calls for a penalty try in the last moment of the match were also based on emotion because Marks, according to the laws, was not within his rights to award one. A penalty try is awarded when the referee is in no doubt a try would have been scored.
Wrong.
The key word in the laws of the game is ‘probable’, or that a ‘probable’ try would have been scored if not for unlawful play by the opposition.
There is no reference to distance.
Probably does not mean possible, neither does it mean definate, and given the game situation, it is very probable that a try would have been scored by Kankowski.
9 Mar 2010, 12:38 pm
wow Keo, that’s a funny article.
Knock knock, who is there ??
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] Show All
Have your say
You must be logged in to post a comment.