Paul Marks sacked

[chief]

Several Super 14 referees are in danger of being the first casualties of a robust judgment system.

Tournament assessors held a conference hookup last night where the performance of Australian official Paul Marks was likely to come under the heaviest scrutiny after a fractious end to the Waratahs and Sharks game.

Fellow whistlers Steve Walsh and Lesego Legoete were also due to come in for some extra audit after patchy performances in recent weeks.

"There is likely to be a strong outcome," referees' boss Lyndon Bray predicted about last night's hookup with Tappe Henning, Colin Hawke and Andrew Cole.

There were several issues to dissect in Marks' performance and the Sharks "had every right to feel that there were two or three decisions which went against them which were quite vital.

"In the overall context of that we need to decide what we are going to do about that.

"There is also another guy in the tournament who has been put at risk but we will share that information later."
CCID: 28569

Walsh was travelling to South Africa and while he had made a few errors including a penalty try ruling in the last round, he was unlikely to be pulled from duty this weekend.

"He has already admitted the penalty try was probably incorrect and we agree with that so the bottom line is he has refereed three times in the tournament and his overall form has been good.

"He will be aware though that his last effort was not one of his better ones," Bray added.

Two assistant referees, Josh Noonan and Damien Mitchelmore, have been stood down this season after issues with their work and several television match officials have been put on notice about their rulings.

Bray thought the peer assessment programme introduced for match officials was working well.

"We are now at a point where obviously our referees do not referee every week like the best players are asked to but we are at a point where guys have done a few games and we are able to make some astute decisions," he said.

Referees performing well would get more matches but there were several problems as Stu Dickinson and Nathan Pearce were injured and unavailable until round six while others were also on duty in the Six Nations series.

Bray felt the concept of referees ruling games in their own countries was fine as long as they did not control matches involving their own provincial sides. Coaches had supported that concept otherwise it would be difficult for officials to be appointed on merit and tournament costs would rise.

The best referees deserved to control the tournament playoffs in May and Bray did not want them to be ruled out because of country neutrality.

"We are more than happy to rule them out because of home franchise, that is almost a consensus we have agreed to, but we do not think it is fair to take the top couple out because you want country neutral, particularly if they are the best performers in the competition," he said

 

[chief]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

Obviously for all of you out there who think Beale deliberately knocked down, Lyndon Bray agrees with you.

Well Lyndon Bray has seemingly cracked under pressure from coaches, and is not backing his referees nor assistants. Was always week. You should back the people who they employ. Also interesting Steve Hardy hasn't been sanctioned for his appearance on the line last week.

 

[MajorlyRagerly]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

Obviously for all of you out there who think Beale deliberately knocked down, Lyndon Bray agrees with you.

Well Lyndon Bray has seemingly cracked under pressure from coaches, and is not backing his referees nor assistants. Was always week. You should back the people who they employ. Also interesting Steve Hardy hasn't been sanctioned for his appearance on the line last week.

Lyndon Bray agrees with the video evidence which the vast majority of neutrals agree with. Hardly cracking under pressure & showing yourself to be weak.

Dont' see why the touchy should be sanctioned - he said knocked away on purpose, it's then up to the referee to decide to award a pen try or not.

 

[chief]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

Obviously for all of you out there who think Beale deliberately knocked down, Lyndon Bray agrees with you.

Well Lyndon Bray has seemingly cracked under pressure from coaches, and is not backing his referees nor assistants. Was always week. You should back the people who they employ. Also interesting Steve Hardy hasn't been sanctioned for his appearance on the line last week.

Lyndon Bray agrees with the video evidence which the vast majority of neutrals agree with. Hardly cracking under pressure & showing yourself to be weak. Was talking about not backing his assistants, and Steve Walsh, and soon to be Paul Marks, who is in a lot of trouble it seems

Dont' see why the touchy should be sanctioned - he said knocked away on purpose, it's then up to the referee to decide to award a pen try or not. I'm not talking about the particular PT incident, I am talking about his performance as a sideline official in general. A fairly piss poor reccomendation, a few missed knock on's.

Who was the AR who forgot the player's number in the Reds v Blues game?

 

[MajorlyRagerly]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

ok, fair enough... I assumed the second paragraph was directly relating to the first.

 

[Blue]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

Was always week. You should back the people who they employ. Also interesting Steve Hardy hasn't been sanctioned for his appearance on the line last week.

Disagree. You should know when backing them is futile. How you handle it from there is the important thing.

An example to the contrary would be how our government handles issues with dimwits amd gravy trainers. They are never wrong.

On the other hand, if he nails them to just cover his arese I am 100% with you.

 

[chief]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

Refs are gonna make mistakes, I find myself always getting pissed off at refs after the game because of their mistakes, sometimes mistakes come out of frustration, a lot of them have come out of just the refs seeing it completely wrong. I will get pissed too the day I die, and when I have finished after I have been fuelled by emotion, I try to remember that I was a useless attempt at a referee, and someone has to do it. I mean because not everyone can be Matt Goddard right?

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

Good on Bray. We want the best to ref our S14 rugby and if they do it kak they should be fired. Sick and tired of refs not doing their job and the Shark one the perfect example of Plumtrees job on the line , helped by some piss poor reffing.

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

O vok dont tell me Welsch is coming to Newlands? :nta:

 

[unsub god]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

Skid Marks is average at best. From memory he has had a f**k up in each of the last couple of seasons. If these guys are not up to it they should be shown the door marked EXIT - NO RETURN.

 

[TheRiddler]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

OK, so if these refs are going to be stood down, who is going to take their place?

And I still cant get over the irony of Tappe Henning being the arbitrator of a refs performance. Still I suppose if needs to look at examples of poor decision making and control, he just needs to go back and look at his own highlights reel.

 

[PaarlBok]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

OK, so if these refs are going to be stood down, who is going to take their place?

And I still cant get over the irony of Tappe Henning being the arbitrator of a refs performance. Still I suppose if needs to look at examples of poor decision making and control, he just needs to go back and look at his own highlights reel.

I do agree about Klappe but as far as I know there is a rating system going and the next lot waiting to get a change.

 

[chief]

Australian referee Paul Marks has been removed from the Super 14 officials panel following his handling of the Waratahs vs Sharks match last weekend.

SANZAR referees chief Lyndon Bray has also admitted that a penalty try should have been awarded to the South Africans but the result of the match will not change. .

Sharks coach John Plumtree had plenty to say about Lawrence's performance following the match which the Sharks lost 25-21to the Waratahs at the Sydney Football Stadium after Kurtley Beale knocked down a pass to Ryan Kankowski.

One can never know if the pass to Terblanche would have been caught by Kankowski who was waiting on the wing as passes frequently go to ground in situations like the one in the match. Referee Paul Marks was at the time not convinced that a try would have been scored and only gave Beale a yellow card.

Beale insists that he was trying to intercept the pass and that had he caught the pass a try would have been scored the other way. matches

The referees' selection panel of Australian Andrew Cole, South Africa's Tappe Henning and New Zealand's Colin Hawke have now reviewed Marks's performances in his past two matches and have voted to drop him from the Super 14 panel until he has rectified shortcomings in his game management.

South African referee Pro Legoete has also been stood down indefinitely.

"There was some imbalance from a management perspective, how he (Marks) arrived at these big decisions and how they were presented," Bray told the Australian and added that Marks's decision not to award the Sharks a match-winning penalty try was only one event and his overall handling of the game was taken into account..

"In fairness to Paul, you could debate the penalty try ruling all day," Bray said.

"We believe the right decision in the cold light of day was to award a penalty try, but you could argue why a referee would back off it."

Referees' selection panel member Andrew Cole also maintained that front-on video footage had shown that contrary to South African claims Kankowski would have had an unimpeded run to the tryline, Waratahs centre Tom Carter was coming across in cover defence.

"Admittedly he had a fair bit of work to do, and we all know how quick Kankowski is," Cole said.

"But Paul would have seen him in his peripheral vision . . . he would have known there was a defender there."

Cole will now work with Marks on improving his game management and is confident he will be back refereeing at the top level before the end of the Super 14 tournament.

 

[Blue]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

OK, so if these refs are going to be stood down, who is going to take their place?

And I still cant get over the irony of Tappe Henning being the arbitrator of a refs performance. Still I suppose if needs to look at examples of poor decision making and control, he just needs to go back and look at his own highlights reel.

I don't think we are going to see one after the other shown the door. Marks has been consistently poor since last year and one huge blunder has sent him over the edge. The question is, if someone like Mark Lawrence who is on top of his game, had committed the same error, would hae have been sacked? Don't think so.

As for Tappe I can only agree but he is a pedantic type so the job is actually suited.

Question is, are there any other refs that could be considered on the "verge?"

 

[chief]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

OK, so if these refs are going to be stood down, who is going to take their place?

And I still cant get over the irony of Tappe Henning being the arbitrator of a refs performance. Still I suppose if needs to look at examples of poor decision making and control, he just needs to go back and look at his own highlights reel.

I don't think we are going to see one after the other shown the door. Marks has been consistently poor since last year and one huge blunder has sent him over the edge. The question is, if someone like Mark Lawrence who is on top of his game, had committed the same error, would hae have been sacked? Don't think so.

As for Tappe I can only agree but he is a pedantic type so the job is actually suited.

Question is, are there any other refs that could be considered on the "verge?"

Pro Leogote and Paul Marks are consisdered on the verge, and look what happened to them.

I can't see Kaplan, or Lawrence/s, being reprimanded for a bad performance, publicly at least. SANZAR, and IRB think they are the beez knees.

 

[fatprop]

Win/win to me, Tahs won and Marks sacked :yay

 

[Blue]

Win/win to me, Tahs won and Marks sacked :yay

Bastard. :lmao:

 

[MajorlyRagerly]

I'm starting to wonder how much nationalistic stuff is actually involved at a referee's level? And therefore whether or not this whole non-neutral thing is actually working.

It's too much of a co-incidence that the Australian representative backs teh Aussie referee and the others don't. Far too much. I would have thought that with clear video evidence & a gathering of facts around a table, 3 experience referee's such as Henning, Hawke & Cole should be able to come to a combined unanimous view on what the correct decison was. I simply cannot believe that they could disagree.

I suspect politics are coming into play.

 

[rustycruiser]

Re: Super 14 referees on notice

OK, so if these refs are going to be stood down, who is going to take their place?

We are going to get back all the top panel refs currently doing the 6 Nations games. Kaplan, Lawrence (NZ), Jonker, LAwrence (SA), and Joubert have all been missing some of the S14 for the NH tests

 

[Refabit]

I agree with dropping Marks but not the public criticism by Bray. When a team coach drops a player he counsels him privately and doesn't bag him in the media. Refs should be given the same courtesy. OK Marksy is pretty crappy but he doesn't deserve that. Somehow Marksy has always had a dream run in Qld with the "powers that be" wearing rose coloured glasses to his performances. Perhaps if the Premier coaches got some input into referee assessment then others might get more of a run. Consequently the next tier of referees at least in Qld is not ready to step up to S14 unfortunately. However there is definite talent coming through.

Don't think NSW is churning out great refs either. But even then they don't get much of a chance when Dickinson and Walsh take all the top games. And if they didn't, it would be (understandably) portrayed as a snub. You cant win.