Tri-Nations latest (Thurs)
29 Jul 2010
Keo.co.za brings you the news from the Tri-Nations.
Richie reveals ref secrets
Richie McCaw told the media how he plays the referee and the opposition at the breakdown during matches.
The All Blacks skipper has been labelled a ‘cheat’ by some teams for his contesting and obstructing methods at the tackle point but he is happy with his style of play. McCaw says he knows how to push boundaries at the breakdowns.
‘If you go in gun shy you’re not going to have an impact,’ McCaw told media. ‘I think the big thing is to understand where you sit and what you’re going to get away with and what you’re not.
‘As long as you’re not putting the team under heaps of pressure you’ve got to still be at the point of knowing what you can get away with and what you can’t and the odd thing you might get wrong.’
Against the Springboks in Wellington a fortnight ago, McCaw admitted he was lucky not to receive a yellow card.
‘I think I gave away four penalties or it might have been five and there were a couple of them I was disappointed with.’
McCaw added that he has developed an ability to read a referee with his 85-Test experience.
‘How do I say it? What I think is right and what he (the ref) thinks is right could be different so you’ve got to figure it out pretty quickly,’ he said.
‘I always think the things I’m trying to do are the right things and if he’s penalising me for some reason I think ”geez I’m not going to get away with that today” or ”that’s not going to work with this ref”. Each ref is a little bit different. I have a fairly good understanding of where they’ll sit, just through experiences.’
All Blacks ban betraying photographer
NZRU CEO Steve Tew says there will no legal action taken against photographer Scott Barbour for capturing the All Blacks’ game plans on camera but he has been banned from training sessions.
The Melbourne-based Kiwi photographer created controversy on Wednesday after he took pictures of the All Blacks’ tactics on paper to be used against the Wallabies this Saturday, which were held by head coach Graham Henry at training. The photos were provided by Getty Images and published by the Australian media.
The NZRU have banned Barbour from covering the All Blacks at training during Bledisloe Cup Tests and will not allow Getty to send a replacement photographer. However, there is nothing stopping Barbour from attending this weekend’s clash in Melbourne as the union cannot make rulings on media coverage at matches on Australian soil.
Tew said the NZRU has contacted Getty after the incident and confirmed it will not sue the company.
‘There is no suggestion we will take legal action. We will obligate our contract with them. There will be no spiteful reaction and people are not going to see a knee-jerk reaction,’ Tew told stuff.co.nz.
Tew did not say how long Barbour will be banned, but team manager Darren Shand yesterday hinted that the photographer might be blacklisted.
‘People’s careers hinge on results,’ Shand said, adding that Barbour was no longer welcome at any of the team’s media opportunities.
197 Comments
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29 Jul 2010, 10:06 am
McCaw has used his 85 tests to learn how to read referees.
Springboks just don’t have the smarts to learn that.
29 Jul 2010, 10:10 am
Newest prequel coming up ……….
ROLLAND’S REVENGE
29 Jul 2010, 10:13 am
What happened to Peter Grant? Injured or Australia?
29 Jul 2010, 10:14 am
@whistleblower(whistleblower)-103:
Japan
29 Jul 2010, 10:16 am
Did he replace “ons vir christus”? Is he finished with SA rugby?
29 Jul 2010, 10:19 am
@whistleblower(whistleblower)-105:
No, he’s coming back next year for the S15.
29 Jul 2010, 10:22 am
Thanks guys.
29 Jul 2010, 10:22 am
@Dawn(Dawn)-104: alooo dawny ,,howz’iet ?
29 Jul 2010, 10:26 am
@Dawn(Dawn)-102:
ROLLANDS REVENGE
“story of watching gold”
the man
who needed to escape
90000 SA fans,
by speaking their (rugby) language
29 Jul 2010, 10:34 am
if rolland ref’ed that the same game at the Boland Stadium, he would’ve needed John Edward to tell his story
29 Jul 2010, 10:34 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-92: I never said NZ rugby was k@k I enjyed a good Bok Season and have lambasted a poor Bok season this year by adding my opinion to what I think we are doing right or wrong. You on the other hand tend to never praise the AB’s or criticise them when poor but instead choose to slate, verbally abuse and add distinctively racist comment to cause derision keep that for NZ rugby sites we don’t need that here. It was me who said last year that I felt we were peaking too soon and found it concerning that the AB’s were struggling as it meant they would only improve so bud get a grip or get lost.
29 Jul 2010, 10:35 am
Interesting that mcCaw should admit he cheats while he has so many supporters who cast him as being pure as driven snow. He’s the Thierry Henry of rugby. It shows how confident he is of P O’B's support to browbeat the refs that he can be so blatant.
As for Gwant10 whining about Pienaar leaving. Look in the mirror bru, he knows that supporters like you will turn on him in a moment, forgetting all he’s ever done. Rather be relatively anonymous in the NH. Do you really want to bring Butch back? He was great (neatly stunted by Paddy O’ Bumchums refs), good in the RWC but just a tad past it. OK for a substitution. We should be super coaching young fly halves.
Try be analytical, objective and not emotional, spewing hatred. With our limited coaching, amateur and divided admin, a myriad of political issues and non-existent development versus foes who are cunning, unscrupulous and totally committed on every level, legal, marginal and illegal, being a diehard Bok supporter may be just that. A diehard.
29 Jul 2010, 10:45 am
Richie got away with murder as a result of the stupid reason to have NH refs in the 3N. These guys myt be the top refs in the world but they haven’t been exposed to the new rules. The SH refs took time to understand these rules in the begining of the S14 but @ that time so were the playaz.
Now we have a situation of guys who are new to this fast paced game tryin to make calls on guys who have had more than 15 weeks to perfect ways to beat the opponent and the ref.
Solution is to have SH refs and then implement these rules worldwide, then bring in these palookas next season when they have improved their game.
Practice makes perfect, sitsho isilungu.
29 Jul 2010, 10:50 am
@Mczana(Mczana)-113:
I would rather we all (SANZAR teams) have exposure to NH this year and not during the WCup. Hopefully next S15 we will see more NH refs and ours will go north. Only way to have ALL refs on the same page.
29 Jul 2010, 10:55 am
@grant10(grant10)-28:
You cannae have it both ways, G10.
Youre an outspoken supporter of picking offshore SA players for the Bok team. Its shortsighted and self-serving that simply fails to see the Big Picture.
Pienaar leaves SA shores for 1 reason and 1 reason only. He knows that all the extra do$h he will earn for a few Magners League turn-ups (diluted teams, even likes of Munster), only to be expected to turn it on in the few Real McCoy H.Cup matches, will NOT mean he has to say goodbye to the Green’n'Gold’. So why shouldnt he ?! Therefore SA RUGBY loses another top player. There is no ‘punishment/payoff’ in terms of conditions-changed.
Krusty has picked every/most offshore Bok player at his disposal, even scorned-ex F.Steyn is merely in hiatus; so desperate is Krusty that he even picks them in bizarre field positions (JdV at WING ?!).
Stay local. Be rewarded.
Take the plane ?
A D I O S !
If you lose a player at 28yrs+, its disappointing, sad, but surely you wouldnt deny any player who has put in approx 10yrs at the top, body heart and soul, let him take the wedge elsewhere and experience new challenges. They still have 5yrs left in their careers, so noones the loser. But players in their early-20s ????
Something wrong there. Fix it.
29 Jul 2010, 11:00 am
@RugbyRulz(RugbyRulz)-114: Thats another option as long as we’ll have uniformity as compared to the current circus. But then if the head is rotten, the whole fish is rotten. P O’B must go.
29 Jul 2010, 11:06 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-115:
Which overseas based players are you referring to? There’s only Steyn and Butch.
29 Jul 2010, 11:10 am
McCaw admits to ‘cheating’
2010-07-28 22:30Email | Print
Richie McCaw (Gallo Images)
Hendrik Cronjé
Bloemfontein – Richie McCaw admitted on Wednesday that he had operated outside the laws of the game against the Springboks on several occasions, but said that it’s all part of rugby.
The All Black captain was penalised five times against the Springboks in Wellington according to website ruggastats.com. This infuriated coach Peter de Villiers and a number of his senior players.
Irishman Alain Rolland was the referee who failed to punish McCaw with a yellow card for his transgressions at the breakdown and will again be the referee when the Boks play the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld on August 28.
“I made a few mistakes. I think the important thing is to know what you will get away with. But I undoubtedly made mistakes,” said McCaw.
He says he will continue playing his way as long as it does not place pressure on the team.
McCaw also admitted prior to Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test against the Wallabies in Melbourne that he was fortunate not to concede more penalties in Wellington.
He said he would be wary of South African referee Craig Joubert in the weekend’s match against Australia.
McCaw and his counterpart from the Wallabies, David Pocock, nevertheless showed that there is still place for fetching flanks in the mould of Heinrich Brüssow in Test rugby irrespective of law changes.
Brüssow looks set to be available to join the Boks on their end-of-season tour to Europe.
McCaw also noted that Pocock had frustrated the Boks a lot at the breakdowns.
“He had a big impact there. The Springboks were also not as accurate as they would have liked to be,” said McCaw.
Pocock was penalised three times according to ruggastats.com.
29 Jul 2010, 11:15 am
@grant10(grant10)-54: Oh come on, what is he, the messiah? Maybe he should just man up and play what’s given to him….but he always looked like a little lost sulking boy,and never really blew anyone off the park, so I don’t see what the big loss is, firstly…and secondly, maybe it’s not even asbout that? Maybe he just got an offer to go work in another country for a while, for a helluva lot of money, and decided it would be an adventure…who wouldn’t want to try something like that?
29 Jul 2010, 11:16 am
@David(David)-117:
Im referring to ‘Boks’. ie ones that have made Boks side and then left, only to be selected nevertheless.
JdV
Butcher
Steyn
Matfield
Smit
BJ
shall I go on ?
29 Jul 2010, 11:35 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-101:
WELL it is difficult to learn anything if it is blown differently in each test and CLEARLY like McCaw is admitting he is allowed to get away with it and the Springboks, when they do it AREN’T!
No denying that McCaw is smart to push the boundaries, good for him, it is just that the Boks are not happy that consistency is not applied, from game to game AND, more importantly, during the game i.e. during a game, why should McCaw be allowed to get away with things but the other team is not allowed?
Seems to me that a major factor with the ABs strategy has been to influence the refs 1) to blow to suite their “style” (like less physicality and structure) 2) to favour them against other teams – like McCaw is admitting.
It probably starts with Paddy O’Brian (a KIWI) and then filters down to refs as they land in NZ.
IF they did not have the interpretation suiting their style and biased towards McCaw – they would be in trouble. McCaw admits it and knows it.
And lets face it after last years 3-0 white wash they needed to do something.
The only influence they do not have is with SA Refs, who coincidence, coincidence are rated the best refs in the world.
Go Figure.
29 Jul 2010, 11:44 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-75:
“@bluealligator(bluealligator)-63: dude that’s not necessary, let’s keep it to rugby!”
You are a good moderator Trans and the foreign visitors to this site appreciate it.
29 Jul 2010, 11:48 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-101:
And prior knowledge makes you VERY SMART i.e. if you know EXACTLY HOW the ref is going to blow, it is EASIER for you to manipulate than the other team ….. and CLEARLY the ABs were pretty up to the situation ….
Hence the Paddy O’Brien and Refs “conspiracy theory”.
Just gotta find the emails now i.e. this has happened to SA Rugby before!
29 Jul 2010, 11:49 am
@Bill Reyts(Gumboots)-88:
“The only cheating in rugby is steriods! The rest of the time you play to the ref in charge!” – Bill Reyts – 88.
+1
29 Jul 2010, 11:54 am
@The Analyst(The Analyst)-123: If you’re joking then that’s good comedy and quite funny for a South African but if you’re serious (and I suspect this is the case) then you must live a paranoid life and it’s hard to see how you enjoy rugby at all. Perhaps you want to go back to isolation when you only played with yourselves.
29 Jul 2010, 12:01 pm
@husky(husky)-112:
I agree with your first paragraph EXACTLY!
Also, both the Aussie and Kiwi Rugby Economies are in such dire straights that it is almost a “given” that they do everything in their powers to ensure that the game is played and reffed to suite their styles …. if not they would lose.
And we all know what loosing does ….. sports market share plummets, like in Australia, so it is VITAL that they win!
The thing that astounded me last year was all the HOO HAA about the boks kick and chase game! It put the fear of GOD into the Aussies and Kiwis as they knew that they could not compete with the Boks (results proved this). All this talk of boring etc. etc. was and is just a crock of poo …
I say this because that type of game is JUST AS SKILFUL as the running game.
And funnily enough the skill it takes to execute a Rugby Union kick chase strategy is EXACTLY the skill that the most popular sport in Australia is based on …. the sport of AFL. SO it cannot be THAT boring!! It is just boring when you lose.
The whole thing from rules and ref’ing just stinks in my opinion …… and smack of the Aus – Kiwi stich up to ensure their styles and sport market shares are maintained ……
Oh, and dare I mention that their is a World Cup in NZ next year – how they got it we do not know (another stich up??) – so an winning code will ensure excitement and interest and hopefully full stadiums (well, not many of the fields can you call stadiums ….. with 20-30K people capacity …. more people watch school boy games in SA!!)
29 Jul 2010, 12:01 pm
@Flametop(Flametop)-91:
“He (McCaw) is a cancer on the game.” Flametop-91
If he’s a cancer on the game then you’re a cancer on Springbok fans.
29 Jul 2010, 12:01 pm
@The Analyst(The Analyst)-121: I dunno. I still have a problem with all this ‘interpreting the ref’ bull. Rules are rules and if you break them, Richie, it’s called ‘cheating’. That makes you unworthy. (and before the kiwis get themselves worked into a froth, I’m referring to him specifically because heh is now so confident of his untouchable status and the protection he gets from POB that he’s quite happy to give interviews about how skilfully he breaks the laws. Wow, what a leader, what an ambassador (and it shames me no end that at one time I referred to him as that) for the sport! And this is the ‘great’ man the kiwis as a nation grovel before. We see habitual offenders like Bakkies (rightfully) getting nailed, but the biggest habitual offender of them all is a national hero. What a joke.
The way I understand it is that a referee’s role is to see to it that the predetermined rules of the game are strictly adhered to to ensure a fair and even contest, to protect teams from dirty or illegal play, and to ensure that the team exhibiting the best skill on the day would win. What a delightfully outdated concept!
I know the quaint notions of fair play, sportmanship, self discipline etc are a thing of the past, but has it really got to the point where players can now crow about their skill at cheating to the world media? And be praised for it? Or when thuggery and violence is defended by the national coach. When a repeat offender like Burger gets away scot free with a second attempt at gouging in a year. Etc etc etc
And when this blatant cheating is pointed out afterward, the established response is then to label the team who has been WRONGED as whingers and whiners? Oh, and this is not a reference to any one team, or match, or sport, by the by, they all do it.
29 Jul 2010, 12:02 pm
@RugbyStudent(RugbyStudent)-118: Hendrik Cronje, the poor excuse for a journo, was doing “creative writing”.
Nowhere did McCaw ever admit to CHEATING, which is always a deliberate act. He admitted to MAKING A MISTAKE, which is always an unintentional lapse of judgement.
And there’s nothing wrong with testing where the ref’s limits are set, simply to see what you can get away with. It’s not like the moronic Bakkies who head-butts in open view, or stupid Schalk who gouges eyes deliberately and who then get crestfallen, woebegone and apologetic when they cop yet another suspension.
Now THAT is proper cheating! Stupid cheating — like writing a ransom note on your own personalised stationery.
29 Jul 2010, 12:03 pm
@Muttonbird(Muttonbird)-125:
Yeah mate I am just as serious as Richie Mc is …. and you can have a “State of Union” every year with the Kiwis while we go for the REAL $$$$ in the Northern Hemisphere.
29 Jul 2010, 12:05 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-129:
Oh please you make it sound all so innocent ….. what a cop out “I made a mistake”!
29 Jul 2010, 12:05 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-129: LOL yea he made the same ‘mistake’ 6 or 7 times in a row!!!! Jeez how naive can you be
29 Jul 2010, 12:07 pm
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-129: YOu’re exactly what i was on aboutin 128. Never about a fair contest, all about how much you can get away with
29 Jul 2010, 12:08 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-102:hello cougar
rolland’s revenge you say, will there be any glowing vampires
29 Jul 2010, 12:09 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-134: Man we are gonna be in for a long day at the office after they way out brilliant management slated him to anyone who would listen!!
29 Jul 2010, 12:11 pm
@bluealligator(bluealligator)-111: don’t worry mate poppa has been afflicted by a persecution complex, luckily the doctors say it’s temporary
29 Jul 2010, 12:12 pm
@The Analyst(The Analyst)-130:
That’s priceless. Analyst is so sick of his team getting beat in the Tri-Nations he wants them to run away to the Six Nations.
If that happens you will watch your Rugby slide even further into the mire.
29 Jul 2010, 12:15 pm
@Muttonbird(Muttonbird)-137: haha, the wheel turns quickly….just a year ago you guys ere in the same situation! But we’ll be back, have no doubts about that!
29 Jul 2010, 12:15 pm
McCaw = our own Shabir Shaik
29 Jul 2010, 12:18 pm
The limits are never crystal clear. An offside line is something that the ref must judge. A legitimate clear-out of a ruck also straddles a fine line. How much “slowing down” of the loose ball is slow enough to get penalised? How much off-true must a prop’s shove be to be judged to have been boring-in illegally? How long must play go on when advantage is being blown and what play constitutes advantage being over? When does a flat pass become a forward pass, or a knock-down become a knock-on? When has a player accidentally passed the ball into touch to concede a lineout and when has he deliberately thrown it out and needs a penalty against him?
It’s only the ref’s call. The ref is the sole judge of fact, and most of his reffing isn’t cut-and-dried.
It’s a subtle matter of interpretation and of laying down your limits. And players have to find out, in play, where those limits and and how consistently they’ll be defined and applied.
Often fans gripe loudly when a ref is too “pedantic” and sets such rigid limits that the game becomes a dull, stop-start snorefest. This is usually the grumble from SH fans directed at over-officious NH refs. But every player is entitled to test the refereeing ice underfoot until it makes ominous cracking noises. That’s not cheating; that’s doing your job properly.
29 Jul 2010, 12:20 pm
@The Analyst(The Analyst)-130:
“Steyn was off the pace because he’d played all of one season in northern hemisphere club competitions for Racing Metro.” – Jon Cardinelli on Keo.
Hey mate! This is what happens when you play in the North. Where’ve you been!
29 Jul 2010, 12:20 pm
@Atreides(Atreides)-132: If he makes the same mistake 7 times and gets away with it 7 times, was it really a mistake?
That’s a Zen question, of course.
29 Jul 2010, 12:22 pm
@The Analyst(The Analyst)-121:
E N C O R E !!!!!
that brought tears to my eyes
29 Jul 2010, 12:23 pm
@quotas_sux(quota_conrad_jantjies_is_jorrie_muller)-110:
Best laugh today – thanks mate (LMFAO) !!!!
29 Jul 2010, 12:25 pm
@Atreides(Atreides)-128:
before you start again
Can you please tell us which number is the next Hymn ?
29 Jul 2010, 12:27 pm
@Atreides(Atreides)-135: if black panther is to be believed, rolland is a ‘hometown ref’ that gets influenced by the cheers of the crowd and atmosphere…
29 Jul 2010, 12:30 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-145: Praise my soul the King of Richie/ To His feet thy tribute bring…
29 Jul 2010, 12:33 pm
@Atreides(Atreides)-135:
“Man we are gonna be in for a long day at the office after they way out brilliant management slated him to anyone who would listen!!” – Atreides-135
Rolland is a professional referee and if he doesn’t do a good and impartial (do you even know what this word means?) job then he gets demoted. He, at least, will not take any baggage to Pretoria unlike SARU, the Springbok managemant, the players and most of all the fans. The only Saffas (other than the sane Keo forumites) that haven’t s.h.i.t. their pants over the ref in the last couple of weeks is the media.
29 Jul 2010, 12:34 pm
@Atreides(Atreides)-128:
Your National Hero RWC Captain wore armbands on to a Test match field that gave a big F*CK YOU not only Adam Jones and Luke Fitzgerald, but also to the entire BIL squad and their Home Nations and peoples.
BUT more importantly, it gave an even BIGGER F*CK YOU to the entire sport of Rugby Union throughout the World. And for the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever, he refused to pay the insignificant fine handed out to him/them by the International Rugby Board.
Your opinion regarding R.McCaw is merely that. J.Smit didnt bother dabbling with ‘opinion’, he just confirmed the FACT.
29 Jul 2010, 12:49 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-149: talking about ‘F*ck you’s, here’s a HUGE one from Adam Jones to you Black Panther!
Botha was banned for two
weeks for a dangerous charge on the Lions
prop Adam Jones in a ruck which left the
Welsh player with a dislocated shoulder
requiring surgery. Botha’s appeal against
the ban was dismissed, and he missed the
third test against the Lions. The injured
Jones himself later came out in defence of
Botha, saying:
“Botha shouldn’t have been banned for it,
nowhere near it. I don’t have any
complaints. He just cleared me out of the
ruck and I got caught. Everyone counter-
rucks nowadays and, if anything, I was in
the wrong place. He just hit me and I was
unlucky. So I was surprised to see he got
banned. I know we didn’t cite him so I
don’t know why the independent
commissioner did. It was just a fair ruck
from a hard player. When I have met him
before he seems like a tidy enough bloke
so I’m not seeing it as anything
malicious.”
so, who knows better what happened that day on the field? You or Adam Jones?
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