Former Test referee Owen Doyle has slammed English official Karl Dickson for awarding RC Toulon a match-winning penalty in the latter stages of the Investec Champions Cup clash against Munster.
In an ill-disciplined encounter, the Irish province fell to a 27-25 defeat at the hands of the French giants due to a late penalty through the boot of Marius Domon.
Referee Dickson issued four yellow cards during the match, two to each team, but much has been made of the final penalty awarded to the Top 14 club, which was the final nail in Munster’s coffin.
The Irish side edged into the lead with eight minutes left on the clock as Tom Farrell latched onto a sharp offload from Alex Nankivell to crash over the line out wide. Jack Crowley added the extras to put his side 25-23 ahead, but it was Toulon who would have the final say.
Match-deciding penalty
The French club were on the attack, looking for the match-winning score with less than six minutes left on the clock, when Farrell made a tackle on Dany Priso, moved away from the ensuing breakdown, which provided the opportunity for Tadhg Beirne to complete the steal.
However, Dickson believed that Farrell had taken up the space at the ruck to facilitate Beirne’s steal and duly penalised Munster, giving Toulon the opportunity to go in front in the Champions Cup clash from the tee.
“Look, you’re in a tackle and he’s saying ‘release him’ but like, you can’t just get out of the way of them,” Beirne said after the match when asked about the decision. “But there’s no point in arguing because once the decision is made, the decision is made.
“We may disagree or disagree, whatever, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. It’s not the reason we ended up losing the game.”
Munster boss Clayton McMillan added, “Look, that’s a world-class referee there [Dickson], and you pick those guys to make the key calls. He’ll be the one that will go away and review it and make his own decision around whether it was right or wrong.”
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However, Doyle was far more damning in his assessment of the English referee, who he believes broke the unwritten rule that the players should decide the match’s outcome and not the officials.
“The truly awful first half is best forgotten, but then we had a real edge-of-the-seat rollercoaster ride,” the former boss of Irish referees wrote in Irish Times column.
“Munster are inclined to live on the edge around the breakdown and could do with tidying things up. Fourteen penalties conceded is just too much, particularly when Toulon coughed up half of that number. Consider also the number of points conceded, with two tries going against them when Tadhg Beirne was in the sin bin. His absence was very costly.
“However, there has been unanimous disagreement with the final penalty. It was a clear case of the whistle deciding the match. With just four minutes left, a terribly harsh call by Dickson saw Munster penalised at the breakdown. There used to be a very important law – it’s never been written down, but it is the height of common sense. It says that players must decide the outcome, not the referee’s whistle.
“So, in a close finish as the clock winds down, the referee makes a conscious decision not to penalise a marginal offence, but only something which is so clear and obvious that it cannot be questioned. I wonder where those wise, unwritten words have gone.”
Munster right to feel hard done by
Doyle believes that Munster and their fans have every right to feel hard done by with Dickson’s decision and described the call as a ‘shocker’.
“However, this match-deciding call was much more reflective of a ‘gotcha’ approach to refereeing,” he continued.
“It was a shocker, apparently against Tom Farrell for not clearing the space at the ruck. Whereas the reality of what happened was that Farrell let go of the tackled player, and then went to an onside position. Clearly, there is no offence.
“The winning kick was a formality, with little degree of difficulty from in front of the posts, and those three points were the last to be scored. Munster and their supporters have every reason to feel hard done by.”