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Bryce Lawrence - JO'N forced my retirement

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The Red Baron

The Red Baron

Chilla Wilson (44)
And the circus continues:

http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/a...-into-retirement/story-e6frf4pu-1226498274482

So JO'N has bitten back at Bryce. And there is a vague quote from Warren Gatland as well!

I especially love the quote from JO'N:

O’Neill on Wednesday night rejected any role in Lawrence’s downfall.

“Let's talk fact,” O’Neill said. “I did not appoint the referees at the Rugby World Cup. The reality here is that Bryce was given the quarter final to control and he was the one in the middle, not me.

“Just as pertinently, his performances were judged by refereeing assessors, not by me."
​
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From what I can see, JO'N isn't flat out denying that he complained about Bryce's performance in the Ireland game there. It really doesn't look like JO'N is denying anything.

I wonder how long this little saga will go on for?
 
mudskipper

mudskipper

Colin Windon (37)
If JON thought he should speak up about a RWC game then what’s wrong wit that? After all he is the ARU CEO wouldn’t that come under his KPIs ... as Coaches and players aren’t authorized to comment...
 
Bruwheresmycar

Bruwheresmycar

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
Well look what happens when the ARU and SARU try to influence test rugby refereeing. Bryce was one of NZ's top refs, and due to all the bitchyness he wasn't allowed to ref many games this year and just ended up retiring.

You don't have to like him to be against this sort of crap. I just trust the NZRU will appoint their best refs and that is that.

(personally I would have sent Bryce to Sith Ifrika for round 1 of the super15 to get it all over with, instead of bowing down to political and social pressure when appointing refs)
 
Blue

Blue

Andrew Slack (58)
Why should JON or anyone else justify anything about a ref? Everyone else knew Bryce has been uttterly useless for some time and it just took a bit of time for Paddy and Co to catch up.

Bruwheresmycar it's nice to have little jibes at Saffas and be my guest but I reckon had it been the Aussies who got the rotten end of the stickl you whould have been crying a different tune.

Lawrence was not a test standard ref and had been called numerous time before that horrendous performance.

He's gone. Good bloody riddance. The best thing that will come out of this is that it puts pressure on all other refs to perform.

How anyone of sound mind could watch that game and not see a ref who was in utter disarray is beyond anything reasonable.
 
Bruwheresmycar

Bruwheresmycar

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
Blue said:
Bruwheresmycar it's nice to have little jibes at Saffas and be my guest but I reckon had it been the Aussies who got the rotten end of the stickl you whould have been crying a different tune.
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Australia did spit the dummy after the Ireland game. And that is specifically why I mentioned them in my post, right next to the part where it says "SARU".

He's gone. Good bloody riddance. The best thing that will come out of this is that it puts pressure on all other refs to perform.
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Yea, this will show them. If they don't perform the ignorant masses will put pressure of their appointments, good plan.
 
southsider

southsider

Arch Winning (36)
Dan54 said:
Actually Torn, I think you summed it up, the most respected player in the game is called McCheat, by people who watch tv, and go on rugby forums claiming to know the laws more than the refs. I have no strong opinion on Bryce Lawrence as a ref, or any others for that matter, but as I stated on another post all these 'experts' replay videos of parts of games that suits them, to prove how bad a ref is. I not just talking about Lawrence, I talking about them all Dickenson for some reason enraged a lot of kiwi fans, couple of my Aussie mates claim that Kaplan dislike Aussie teams so is always hard on them. I just wonder what happened to the ref is in charge, and you accept his decisions. I just think there are a lot of very bad sports out there, and don't accept their team can lose except that ref beats them, or even if they accept the other team was better, they can say but ref helped them.
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kaplans is as biased as they come, look at the tahs poor record with him and compare it with their overall win/lose ratio over the past 4-5 years....simply doesnt add up
 
Gagger

Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
I'm not surprised Bryce gets defended by Kiwis - not just because he is one - but because of his style of reffing especially at the breakdown. Those teams who could counter-ruck and disrupt at the breakdown did better under Bryce, and we know that many Kiwi teams excel at it. (As an aside I reckon Stu Dickers tended to ref to Aussie sensibilities)

When I was lucky enough to catch up with Link on the night of the S15 final, he said that knowing they had Byrce - breakdown disruption was a key plank of their strategy. It worked. I find it hilarious that McCaw could whinge about this.

So, it wasn't a flaw that was out of the blue or created by O'Neill, and indeed in the same article Bryce admits he was also crap at the S15 final, which he couldn't blame JO'N for then? Or maybe he was blaming McCaw? I don't think he has a clue.
 
Penguin

Penguin

John Solomon (38)
To be fair, most Kiwi's I've talked to & plenty I've seen on forums never rated him as a ref either. And that, to me, says it all really.
 
Mank

Mank

Ted Thorn (20)
MajorlyRagerly said:
Bryce Lawrence is the opposite of a family friend, however I still think anybody that got to ref the games he did & dedicated as much time as he did to the game of rugby is worthy of a full credit. Lets be honest, he wasnt much chop of a ref in his later years, but he was still getting selected. In hindsight, he perhaps should have turned down the QF, stating the reasons he says above.
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What this guy said.
 
MajorlyRagerly

MajorlyRagerly

Trevor Allan (34)
Gagger said:
I'm not surprised Bryce gets defended by Kiwis - not just because he is one - but because of his style of reffing especially at the breakdown. Those teams who could counter-ruck and disrupt at the breakdown did better under Bryce, and we know that many Kiwi teams excel at it. (As an aside I reckon Stu Dickers tended to ref to Aussie sensibilities)
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I think most that defend Bryce, only go as far as saying he's not as bad as you lot seem to think he is. And that's a fairly low bar to start at. I don't think he's as bad what I would say is GAGR consensus, but I certainly wouldn't rate him as high as adequate or acceptable.

I make no apologies for enjoying watching teams counter-ruck & seeing the more dominant physical team rewarded & perhaps Bryce did tend to ref this way - although at best, he was a random penalty generator as soon as a breakdown, or scrum, formed.
 
PaarlBok

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Sad to see another Kiwi ref goes. We need the Kiwi and Aussie refs urgently in the World ref rankings.
 
Bruwheresmycar

Bruwheresmycar

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
barbarian said:
Ignorant masses? So are you saying Bryce was a good ref?
.
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He was a good ref. Just never a world class ref which is what you need to ref teir 1 tests regularly well. (like Nigel Owens, Steve Walsh, Craig Joubert)

I'm just concerned that we are caving into pressure a bit to much nowdays. Just because the ignorant masses were probably right about Bryce's days coming to an end, I'd put that down to blind luck if anything. If it were up to them, Wayne Barnes would have retired 4 years ago, which would have been terrible.

I can see a few up and coming NZ and SA refs slowly moving into teir 1 test rugby. And bad games are going to happen at some time. I just hope their careers aren't also determined by the mob.
 
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