Big Bad Ben
Ben Tameifuna got in trouble with referee Glen Jackson playing for Waikato v North Harbour on the weekend.
He should have been in strife just after oranges because he had body charged the Harbour flyhalf Matt McGahan and knocked him over. He didn’t use his arms but to be fair his arms probably weren’t long enough to grab McGahan because his front sticks out so much and the other bloke just bounced off him.
But in the 72th minute Harbour is six points behind and has been peppering the Mooloos’ line for yonks, They’ve been getting penalty advantages, and ref Jackson is in a bad mood. The play is on one side of the posts; so Big Ben goes to stand between them in case some smart-arse decides to come that way.
He sees Jackson there trying to get a view of what was happening, and just pushes him out of the way. The referee falls arse over head.
Then runners come at Ben and he stops the first rush from lock Mike Farmer and both fall near the goal line. Then 9 Bryn Hall picks up the ball and tries to dive over Tameifuna to score, but Ben grabs him though he’s still on the ground.
He saves the try. The ref blows his whistle: someone is in strife. It’s Tameifuna: He gets a yellow card for “playing the ball on the ground”, says Jackson.
It had nothing to do with the push; sure, and pigs can fly.
Harbour can’t get over the line and Waikato win 22-16, due mainly to the cool goal-kicking of Kiwi first-five wunderkind Damian McKenzie, who slotted six out of seven.
Maybe Tameifuna, who scored Waikato’s only try, got a yellow card, but he saved the match.
