Well this week has been a better week than the last two after watching the Wallabies comprehensively take Italy to the cleaners. In some way I feel for the Italians, a long travel journey, some good players not available and the coach suspended from being part of the team on the day. All good for the Wallabies, though, so while I feel sorry for them it’s only a bit sorry.
Now we start looking forward to a new reign with Kiss in charge with two games against Japan, one home and one away, followed in quick succession by two away games against Argentina, a home game against the Boks in Perth, a home and away against the ABs and then the second half of the Nations Championship series in the Northern Hemisphere where they play England, Scotland and Wales before the finals. Currently the Wallabies are sitting at third and equal with England on the other side. For me while the game against Italy was good I think there’s still a fair bit of consistency needed from this team. Argentina are only a bonus point behind at the moment but are also playing Ireland France and Italy at home, a tougher schedule.
Referee Corner
Photo courtesy of Keith McInnes
Just a reminder that the comments shown here are my own and do not reflect any opinion of any referee organisation anywhere.
It was an interesting weekend of rugby with some tough calls and some even tougher reviews that caused a lot of people to lose their mind and fire up the internet with calls of referee incompetence if not downright referee cheating – against their team obviously. I haven’t got time to look at everything here but I’ll bring up a couple.
One thing I will say is that I think all the referees in these matches have struggled a bit with the change in emphasis that World Rugby has imposed on the games. The adjudicating has been a lot more technical than tactical and things that have been let go in both Super Rugby and the games up north have been pounced on here and the referees have struggled to adjust to this. The calls about referees talking too much and guiding the players has been, I think, a way for them to try and keep the game flowing without endless stop/start penalties and scrums.
Wallabies v Italy. Two incidents here. The first was in the first half when the TMO felt that Canham had knocked the ball on leading to Ikitau’s try. Ridley reviewed the footage, overruled the TMO and the try stood. This was a great display of refereeing by Ridley and he should be commended for it.
The second incident was the red card issued to Riccioni while sitting off the field after being substituted for throwing a punch in a sideline scuffle. I thought the referee handled both of these incidents well. The scuffle itself was a bit of a nothing affair with Italy reacting to Amatosero unnecessarily diving into the Italian player who was already out and no longer had the ball. Initially it was a typical push and shove but then Ricconi decided to charge in and throw a punch and was carded. How this is handled will be interesting but, for mine, should receive the same sanction he would’ve got if he’d been on the field at the time. We wait and see. This game was probably the easiest of the games to referee this weekend. The Wallabies were clearly the better team in almost all facets of the game and that did make things easier for the officials.
All Blacks v Ireland. Two separate incidents here in this game as well as a lot of Irish debate about Berry being overly pedantic, actively ‘coaching’ players in real-time by yelling at them to move their hands away rather than penalising clear infringements. While I can see where he was coming from, Berry was consistent in this area to both teams and I think a lot of the Irish complaints should be directed more at the poor handling and tackling from their players. An 87% tackle completion and 11 handling errors contributed more to their loss than any referee call.
The first incident was when Jacobson launched into a ruck and made contact with Josh van der Flier’s head/neck with his shoulder. The officials correctly issued only a yellow card with an off field review. While there were lots of calls that this should’ve been a straight red card, the protocol in these matches is that the off field decision by the Foul Play Reviewing Officer (FPRO) is the best way to manage these incidents because he has time and many alternative views to make a, likely, correct decision. All the on field officials need to do is determine if there is foul play and then let the FPRO delve into the details. I’m happy with this process and the only real issue is when fans think the FPRO got things wrong and so blame the referee for that decision. Personally I thought Jacobson was lucky with that call. He’d left the ground and made head contact and would’ve/could’ve been looking at an upgrade. The FPRO’s job is to review the play and see if there’s any mitigation. Andrew Jackson from England is obviously one of those who looks for a reason why it can be mitigated rather than reasons why it can’t. These FRPOs are like others in that they sometimes have a bias. Their role is to adjudicate on mitigation and some look harder than others for that mitigation. In this case Jackson looked hard for a reason and found one. He ruled that Jacobson was bringing his ram around to grasp, but the Irish player who was off side and lying on the ruck moved up and prevented him from wrapping and that was enough to have the card remain Yellow. TBH I wouldn’t’ve been surprised or upset if this had been upgraded but, it wasn’t, and that’s rugby.
The second incident is the knock down by Tupaea. He rushed in and dived to catch the ball, was never in a position to catch it and didn’t and was penalised for the deliberate knock down. The ruling on this is quite clear. Law 11.3 – A player must not intentionally knock the ball forward with hand or arm. sanction – penalty. In addition to this Law 11.4 – It is not an intentional knock forward if, in the act of trying to catch the ball, the player knocks on provided that there was a reasonable expectation that the player could gain possession. In this instance law 11.4 was obviously not in play and so a penalty was correct. Now the part that so many in Ireland have latched onto regarding whether it should also have been carded. When an incident like this occurs the referee also has to look at the impact on the game. If but for the incident a try would probably have been scored then a yellow card is given. If but for the incident a try would definitely have been scored then this would be upgraded to a red card. Now this incident occurred on the half way line and while it was a 3 on 2 situation there was a lot of cover coming across and nothing in the game to this point indicated that a try would probably have been scored. In fact for me the way Ireland was playing it would have been more probable that the ball would have been dropped or thrown into touch. The call, mainly from Irish supporters but also other anti-AB supporters in my mind was just BS and I think Berry made absolutely the correct call.
England v Argentina. This was always going to be an interesting game. There’s a lot between these two countries with lingering feelings over the Falkland/Malvinas war and on top of this some ill feeling from the soccer World Cup game where Argentina won 2-1 with two late goals. I only watched the 23 minute version of this game and so while there appeared to be some ill feeling between the sides I may’ve missed some of it. From what I saw there was some very good rugby and while England came out with a hiss and a roar, Argentina fought their way back into the game well. The game itself was full of incidents with seven yellow cards, high tackle disputes, and accusations of a potential punch going unpunished by the officials. I think a lot of Gus talking to the players was to try and settle things down but you know sometimes the players just want to fight rather than play and I think that this was one of those times. Both teams had players disputing calls and arguing throughout the match and maybe Gus should’ve been harder on this and sent a couple to the bin early to calm them down. However, I don’t believe it would’ve changed anything as both sides were determined to act like twats, regardless of what the officials were doing.
The main incident that fuelled the issue was the last disallowed try. From a technical viewpoint I agree with the call; the ball was clearly on the touch line as it was grounded and for me that was a correct call. The real issue was the attempted tackle by the English defender. Caluori, the English #23, attempted tackle seemed to be a seat belt type high tackle across the neck and shoulder of Delguy. As this incident caused a definite try not to be scored, a card and penalty try the result if it had been upheld.
The reasons provided for this not happening were twofold. Firstly, the officials reasoned that the initial point of contact was made legally on the shoulder before the tackle slipped upward. The subsequent ride up towards the neck was deemed an indirect consequence of the forward momentum rather than a direct, illegal hit. Secondly, Delguy was diving heavily for the corner flag to ground the ball, drastically lowering his body line. Under World Rugby mitigation guidelines, a sudden drop in height by the ball carrier protects a defender from being penalised for accidental head/neck contact.
As I mentioned above the FPRO tends to look for reasons things can be mitigated as opposed to why they can’t. Disagree with the call or not, it’s an established process and once the decision is made it should be respected. TBH, this is another one I thought could’ve gone either way and I wouldn’t’ve been surprised or disappointed if the call was made for a high tackle and penalty try. The good thing is that by not winning Argentina stay below Australia on the table and that’s a good, if slightly biased, outcome.
Relieved Schmidt ends on a high after dominant Wallabies send off coach in style
With his time as head coach over and about to take up a part time role Schmidt’s time is up as coach, ending with a 57-10 victory at Perth against Italy. Lock Josh Canham cashed in with a hat-trick, the first second-rower to do so for the Wallabies and, to be fair, they were never troubled by a weakened Italian team. This was Australia’s highest score in the two-and-a-half-years Schmidt has been in charge and their largest on home soil since 2014 when they started the season with a ruthless 50-23 victory over France at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
“I’m just delighted with the effort from the players,” Schmidt said. “I’m going to try to celebrate till midnight, and then I might celebrate as a retired gentleman for a couple more hours.” Adding “I’ve massively enjoyed the group. I think they’re a great group of young men, and there are some very good footy players amongst them.”
The game was played well until near the end when prop Marco Riccioni was red-carded for his involvement in a sideline melee. Riccioni had already been subbed out of the game when he ran in to join brawling players right near the Italian bench. The win helped erase the pain of last week’s 42-26 loss to France, when Australia conceded 30 consecutive points in a woeful second half. “We were clinical, we had a lot of positive moments in a row and our discipline’s improved,” captain Harry Wilson said.
This was a very good game by the Wallabies. Yes, Italy were poor, they are missing some players and had their coach banned from being in the stadium; however, the Wallabies got on top early and managed to hold their posture for the entire game which was good to see.
Joe Schmidt finished his tenure as head coach of the Wallabies with an official record of 12 wins and 19 losses from 31 test matches giving him a 38.71% win While Schmidt may not’ve got the results he wanted, and I still think it was a mistake to keep him on this year, coming in and taking over the complete debacle that Eddie Jones left is to be respected. I still have some concerns on his selections and game plan but that’s all gone now and I think he can leave with his head held high. Thank you, Joe, and good luck for your partial retirement.
Les to give Wallabies Kiss of life
Arise Sir Les (AAP: Dan Himbrechts)
We now look forward to what Les Kiss can bring to the Wallabies. Les started his career as a coach with the Springboks when he was recruited on a short-term consultancy deal by then Boks coach Harry Viljoen, Kiss’s focus was defence. He had an immediate impact as South Africa conceded just three tries in the 2001 Tri Nations tournament, beating and drawing with the world champion Wallabies to boot. “That was 25 years ago and has sat under a lot that I’ve done.” he said adding that his focus on the coaching will be “All theories are tested over that 80 minutes and it will come down to how hard people are prepared to work for that gold jersey.”
In 2023 London Irish’s collapse forced Kiss to find a new home and Ballymore, looking to replace Brad Thorn, was an obvious choice. In the three seasons the Reds never progressed beyond the quarter-final stage of Super Rugby Pacific. But they twice set club records for tries scored in a season and won seven games against New Zealand sides, including the first over the Crusaders in Christchurch for 25 years.
Kiss will name his first squad and deliver his first press conference on Thursday, providing the public the biggest indication yet of how life might be different for the Wallabies under Kiss. “Looking at the opportunity in front me, the deep sense of feeling I do have, is of optimism,” he said adding “I believe in these boys, what’s possible for us and our capability. I’m very encouraged by a lot of things that have been done and champing at the bit to get involved and get to work with my coaches.” Kiss will bring Jon Fisher from the Reds and has added Kiwi Scott McLeod to his coaching team. The 61-year-old went to two World Cups with Ireland as an assistant but will navigate new, high-pressure ground as a head coach of the host nation next year. “I’m an invested coach, emotional coach, but I’ve been through the mill a bit, through a lot.” Kiss is ready for the job realistically admitting that the “Kiss of life” may be a “Kiss of death” at times.
Kiss’s first game in charge will be in Osaka on 8 August against Japan coached by Eddie Jones. This will be a real test for Kiss as so many here will want to see Japan, or Eddie really, completely humbled as part of the pay back for his disastrous time at the last RWC and for the duplicity where many felt he deliberately kept RA in the dark about his plans with Japan.
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