Even Henry thinks NZ TMO are shockers

Will henry appear before a tribunal I wonder. funny to see ol henry on the receiving end. No stoping him shouting the odds.

Ex Supersport 

 

 

Graham Henry © Gallo Images Play our Super Rugby games and WIN 'As good as can be expected...' - Dewald Potgieter Super Rugby: Week 14 in pictures Henry criticises 'blind' officials in loss 21 May 2013, 05:52
 

World Cup-winning coach Graham Henry has heavily criticised the influence of the assistant match officials following the Blues' 23-3 Super Rugby loss to the Crusaders at the weekend.

Henry, who guided the All Blacks to their second World Cup victory in 2011, is an assistant to Blues coach John Kirwan and has taken a back seat in facing the media this season.

The 66-year-old, however, was back to his mischievous best on Tuesday, claiming the television match official in the loss in Christchurch must have been "blind" not to have awarded Blues winger Frank Halai a try during the second half.

"It was obvious to me, I don't know, he was probably a blind TMO was he? It's an obvious try," Henry said. "I could see it and I'm blind."

The Crusaders had dominated the Blues' set piece, particularly the scrum, and were quick off the line in wet conditions to give them a victory that moved them past the Auckland-based side into fifth on the Super Rugby standings.

Henry, however, felt the Crusaders may have been a little too close to the limits of the law on defence.

"When you're watching the game you see so many offsides in the line from a ruck," he added.

"I would say there was probably 20 times at the weekend when guys were offside from the ruck."

Henry was also annoyed at the influence of the assistant referees when Blues lock Culum Retallick received a yellow card from referee Glen Jackson late in the first half for a deliberate knock down while the Crusaders were hot on attack.

"They threw the ball at him," Henry said while adding the match officials should have instead been concentrating on the offside line.

"We are sitting in the coaches' box, and I'm sure the Crusaders coaches are doing the same thing, saying 'offside ref, offside line umpires'.

"Those are the things they are there for. Not some controversial knock down of the ball in the five metre channel, yellow card.

"Just do the basics right and we have a good game of footy.

"Those sort of things frustrate you but that's part of the game. They were better than us, we accept that, they deserved to win the game."

© Reuters

 I can't get the angles right from watching the screen but the Saders were up very fast throughout the game.You might get a flyer coming through normally to cut off the flat pass but their entire line was right up.I thought they were brilliant in defence,driving through with their tackling and Dan Carter must have pulled off a recoed number of tackles.

 

 

Zip - agree, angles are tough to be accurate on watching on TV as related to the defensive line being onside. I do see a lot of the fringe ruck players - pillars as some like to call it - that are definitely not behind the last foot and close down the space far too quickly.

 

 

Seems like sir Graham is in the dwang after all. To be honest he earns respect for complaing about blind TMO. Maybe his fellow countrymen who are purportedly oblivious to the dismal state of affairs of their refs/tmo etc may take notice! 

Cape Town - SANZAR has brought a misconduct complaint against Graham Henry for heavily criticising the influence of the assistant match officials following the Blues' 23-3 Super Rugby loss to the Crusaders last weekend.

Henry, who guided the All Blacks to their second Rugby World Cup victory in 2011, is an assistant to Blues coach John Kirwan and has taken a back seat in facing the media this season.

However, the 66-year-old was back to his mischievous best on Tuesday, claiming the television match official in the loss in Christchurch must have been "blind" not to have awarded Blues wing Frank Halai a try during the second half.

His comments have upset SANZAR, with the complaint now referred to SANZAR duty judicial officer Jannie Lubbe.
 
In bringing the complaint, SANZAR will allege that Henry's comments amount to misconduct under Rule 10 of the SANZAR disciplinary rules and breach the SANZAR code of conduct section 8.3 (a) and (e).

Henry failed to meet the press after the Blues training on Thursday, leaving Kirwan to tell TVNZ: "Sorry to disappoint you guys

"But we let him out and he had a bit of a dig, so we've just put him back again and settled him down a wee bit."

The hearing will take place via teleconference on Sunday, May 26.

 So quick to jump on any criticism. How about the same public censure for refs whom they have already acknowledged made a mistake - one that is critical to the outcome of a game. Surely these poor decisions do just as much to bring the game into disrepute as a coach that challenges those same decisions?