THE WHISTLEBLOWER

Botch ups on an international scale

David Matthews reports on two unbelievable errors of administration

On the last weekend of the Six Nations, as if there were not enough items to get you talking, there were two amazing snippets which defy belief. Before the England v Ireland match, South African assistant referee Marius  van der Westhuizen was taken off the game because he had been helping England in training during the week. It is scarcely credible that England asked him and even more amazing that he agreed to do it. There is not a problem with an international referee helping his own country in their build up to a game, Wayne Barnes has regularly been involved with England, but who on earth came up with the idea to approach one of the match officials?

Nor was that the only piece of nonsense that same weekend . After a World Cup qualifying defeat, 18-10, to Belgium, Spain were incensed by the officiating of the Romanian referee and his assistants. The result meant that Romania qualified ahead of Spain for next year’s tournament in the Europe 1 slot - joining Ireland, Scotland and Japan in Pool A -  having accumulated three more points than Spain in Rugby Europe’s Championship over the past two years. Spain, it appears, had asked for the officials to be changed, given the possible outcome of the fixture in Brussels. The appointment was not made by World Rugby, but by Rugby Europe who, I must confess, I did not know existed. The Spain players angrily confronted the referee after the match which led to a security escort; there has been an apology since for this.

Fortunately there were no such occurrences in the Six Nations, although Wales may have been sorely tempted after the video call in the England match. So, what of the refereeing in this iconic tournament? I stand by a prediction made in these columns three years ago that either Wayne Barnes or Nigel Owens would take charge of the World Cup Final; as it turned out, Wayne refereed the third place play-off and Nigel was rewarded with the final. These two are still the best in the world, France is well represented on the international list and after that there is a fine line between accuracy and ‘catch everything that moves.’ I am certain politics are still heavily involved but we can do without the daft mistakes of recent weeks. The upshot from the Spain fiasco, incidentally, was that the Romanian referee, was withdrawn from fourth-official duties at the European Challenge Cup quarter-final between Pau and Stade Francais.

DWM 23/03/18 (13)