Hail and Farewell

No ALB for the TRC.

Well the judiciary has had its deliberation and ALB finds himself missing out on the TRC games. As reported here on Stuff he’s been handed a 3 week ban for his stupid tackle attempt during the final of the Super Rugby. Lienart-Brown was shown a Yellow Card by referee BOK, with the TMO ruling that the sin bin would stand with no upgrade. However, the citing commissioner post-game ruled that the incident, which saw Dallas McLeod removed from the filed following a failed HIA had met the red card threshold.

SANZAAR announced ALB had pled guilty to controvening law 9.13 A player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously. The judiciary said “Having conducted a detailed review of all the available evidence, including all camera angles and additional evidence, including from the player and submissions from his legal representative” the citing was upheld. The tackle was considered foul play, reckless, with direct head to head contact, high force and no significant mitigating factors present. Then followed the usual exemplary record, remorse blah, blah, blah and so reduced to half with a 3 week sanction.

In a shortened TRC ALB will miss the games against the DDF and FISMs. He will be available for the game against the Wallabies in Melbourne once he attends the World Cup Intervention Program that will tell him nothing new but make people feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Now for me this was always going to be a red card. I still have no idea what the TMO saw that meant it stayed at yellow and I think that was a poor decision. While I’m personally not a fan of the crap that takes it to 3 weeks, that at least is consistent with other judiciary rulings and so can be considered fair enough. I think this’ll hurt the ABs. ALB was looking pretty good and certainly up there as a good option for 12. I think his vision and distribution is slightly better than Jordie B and while he doesn’t kick as well or make the crash ball yards that Jordie does, I think he provides a better overall option.

In-form Wilson deserved a shot in Eddie’s Wallabies squad

In a post that will no doubt have the support of almost every Reds supporter Paul Cully explains here in SMH why he thinks Harry Wilson should be in the Wallaby squad.

You can see where Eddie Jones is going with the back-row picks in the Wallaby side – Rob Leota, Rob Valetini and the rehabbing Langi Gleeson all offer massive gain line power. Jordan Uelese over Lachlan Lonergan at hooker looks to be another size-over-skill selection, and Jock Campbell appears to have paid a similar price for a perceived lack of explosiveness.

This is a deliberately confrontational Wallabies side, but for all his perceived flaws Wilson fronted for the Reds at the right time of the season. There are few who run better lines, and Wilson can consider himself unlucky. Perhaps his run came too late, but he may also simply be a victim of how the modern game has become obsessed with the collision. The Reds No.8 had a storming finish to Super Rugby, when his work rate and offload skills stood out in the Reds’ performances against the Highlanders and Chiefs.

In think Harry Wilson has also been a victim of Jones fascination with players from offshore, despite never proving themselves in gold, and the idea of the need for “utilities” who can cover multiple positions. I mean calling out a player who is normally a 6 or 7 and saying he will also cover wing is something that must surely raise a few eyebrows.

To be fair I can sort of see why Wilson didn’t make the cut. Despite having a massive offload, being top of the metres run and having a good defence, Harry Wilson is just not showy enough for a coach like Jones. Jones seems to need players who can satisfy his unbridled love affair with league and be players he can call out in a press interview. He’s just not interested in a grafter, regardless of how they perform in a game.

Under-fire referee Ben O’Keeffe explains how he missed contentious forward pass

On Sunday, after the Super Rugby final, Ben O’Keeffe was on a plane to France where he was going to referee other games and, as is normal, he spent the time reviewing the decisions he made during the final. As reported here this is a normal process and, especially after the viral he had endured on social media BOK was interested to see how bad or good he’d actually been.

“I look at every single play in the game, pass, potential decision, potential non-decision, my positioning, the way I communicate,” O’Keeffe told SENZ from France on Tuesday. “It takes me probably a good 10 hours to go through the game, forward, rewind. I’m clipping, I’m coding, and really trying to find the detail. Because I want to give really good feedback to the coaches.” he said.

His review told him that while he felt he’d nailed the process that saw Chiefs No 8 Luke Jacobson carded after numerous repeated penalties, he put his hand up and admitted he’d missed the much discussed forward pass from Jack Goodhue.

“That was a clear forward pass that we missed from the Crusaders. It’s my responsibility to get that,” O’Keeffe told SENZ, refusing to throw his assistant referees under the bus. “What I actually noticed when I did my review is that I moved into the d-line as I transitioned. When the ball was passed behind me, I went in there too deep, so I was about four or five metres behind the d-line.” BOK went further explaining his process and stating that “We want to take half a step, get behind the d-line and as the defender comes through you move back with the defender, so you can quickly get back into what’s a ball in line position, so you can get in line for those passes, and that’s something I didn’t do.”

O’Keeffe stressed it was never a case of simply admitting an error and moving on. His thorough reviews were in place for him to take on board the lessons and improve.

I found this review really interesting and I think it’s something that should occur more often. I’m 100% behind the referees neutrality and I know for a fact that while there is sometimes influences from players that affect a 50/50 call, the idea that a referee goes into a game with a bias is absolute crap.

I think that a lot of the problems people have with referees is based on not knowing why they made the decisions they did and I think that if they came out and explained their process they would gain a lot of support. Unfortunately in the social media age we will never be safe from those keyboard warriors who are able to provide vitriol comments and abuse safe in the knowledge that they will never be called out. My only point to all of them is that if you are that gutless you don’t actually deserve any consideration, so keep on with it and die in the knowledge that no one who matters actually cares what you think.

Thanks for the memories and comradeship

Well team, my time has come to take a break from the fortnightly ravings of a mad Kiwi. I’d like to thank you one and all for your contributions, comments, friendship and lack of sheep jokes.

For those who are thinking about having a go at writing I’d say go for it. It has been a journey of learning how to do this, what to say and how to make a point without being a typical crybaby kiwi on an Australian site. I certainly copped a bit at times from people who didn’t like to see a Kiwi bad mouthing Australian players and so I became an Australian citizen so I could do that.

For the most part I’ve tried to be more neutral and while I haven’t always succeeded I did try. I think that sometimes I have criticised players too much when it wasn’t actually their fault they were selected, however I still think there are some that just don’t seem to provide anything substantial and to be fair these are on the coach more than the players.

I’ve enjoyed being able to provide a referee example and will leave knowing that as both a referee and a Kiwi I am always going to be disliked by some. To all of you Kia Kaha and good luck with whatever team you follow so passionately.