Joubert to officiate Scotland 6 Nations match ..

...giving Scottish fans some bottle throwing practice.. 

The South African referee was publicly humiliated by World Rugby after he awarded Australia a last-minute penalty that it kicked over to beat Scotland by one point at Twickenham.

Joubert had penalised a Scot for being offside, but video replay showed the ball hit an Australian first, making the Scot onside. That happened in less than a second, in rain.

   

Craig Joubert leaves the field at full-time in Scotland's RWC quarterfinal loss to the Wallabies.

World Rugby made the unusual decision to release a statement and shame Joubert, and inflame Scotland's feeling of injustice. Joubert was unable to use the Television Match Official at the time, a rule which is being reviewed.

Scotland great Gavin Hastings branded his actions "despicable" and former captain Andy Nicol called him a "coward".

Among the other appointments announced on Wednesday (NZT Thursday), Nigel Owens, who whistled the World Cup final, will touchjudge a couple of matches before taking the tournament closer between France and England in Paris.

His decision to run off the field is a black mark against his reputation and a burden he'll have to carry for the rest of his life. 

I'm totally mystified by this reaction as I've always rated Craig Joubert as an honest and  manly type of guy...all I can say is he might have clay feet when it comes to very tight adjudication and is a basically a rule by the letter man instead of the a rule of the discretion man.

Rulings are required at times of extreme crucial decisions to have initiative and discretion...that is where the ref should use his nolly and options open to him...the question is does the ref have the authority to call on tmo in crucial decisions where it is a fair and just call...and if so does he have the savvy and guts to call on this out of the ordinary situation. I doubt it...if in this instance he used his initiative to refer to tmo inspection he would have undoubted not given a penalty and in truth Scotland would have won with absolute integrity and nobody would have challenged it because it was right and fair. Rules are meant to promote ethics in rugby and indeed in all sport...not to create negativity but indeed enhancement of fair, fit and proper decisions.

If he had applied the tmo what would the rugby control board say...I'm sure nothing, in fact it would have been accredited to him as good reffing and some sort precedent would have been set for the future.

This unfortunate incident must now be addressed by the IRB and the refereeing section and prevented in the future.

I only hope and pray that it has and something of this nature will never happen again.

The biggest sadness of all it was an accolade that Scotland deserved and a huge one at that as it is unlikely that Scotlands chances of being there again in the next couple of 4 year periods are slim.

Oh Flower of Scotland when will we ever see your like again