With the final coming up this weekend, there has been plenty of attention on the man in the middle, Nigel Owens.
He’s undoubtedly the best ref in the world at the moment, and thoroughly deserves his place in the Final.
With the All Blacks love of a good up-and-under, one area that Nigel will really have to watch is Kiwi chasers challenging Israel Folau and others in the air.
This has been a growing trend over the past few seasons, with opposition teams looking to nullify our strength in the air. A chaser will look to put himself underneath or past the Wallaby jumper, and while their eyes may be on the ball they are never in the contest. It’s a threat to the players safety and one that has been ignored for far too long.
The best example of this tactic in recent times was the Eden Park Bledisloe, with Conrad Smith making a pest of himself on numerous occasions. He should have been penalised multiple times, and yellow carded once. But Nigel Owens ignored these indiscretions, and only opted to penalise him for a clear YC offence.
Have a look at the video below, put together by G&GR reader Ben Dickinson. Not all of these matches are refereed by Nigel Owens, but it does highlight an interesting issue faced by the Wallabies and Nigel. No doubt Steve Hansen and the All Blacks are aware how successful these tactics were at Eden Park, and how they were officiated.
It’s a tough situation for a referee, but too often they are missing clear penalties and putting jumping players at risk. A couple of these are 50-50s, but a couple are absolute clangers.
What do you think? Could this bite us in the Final?
