I have not heard much about this as a policy by SANZAR but this issue raised its head on Sport 24
South African rugby supporters are often accused of suspecting conspiracies against the Boks around every corner. But SANZAR just fuelled that suspicion and demonstrated that our claim, that we often receive “special” treatment from our rivals and “allies”, is not unfounded or caused by paranoia or perceptions devoid of any truth. Very uncharacteristic SANZAR just pointed out a mistake by a referee and an injustice done to a team. That the referee is a South African and the victim the Brumbies from Australia probably explains why SANZAR decided to be so honest on this occasion. That the “beneficiary” of the bad piece of refereeing was the Bulls, from South Africa, also motivated SANZAR to seek moral high grounds and to become an unlikely fraternity of truth seeking gentlemen. SANZAR said the Bulls scored a try after a knock by Morne Steyn and that it cost the Brumbies the game; i.e. SANZAR officially admitted that referee Marius Jonker and his assistant referees fucked up. Cool, what commendable honesty and how refreshing to hear these guys actually criticising a referee. After all we all pleaded with rugby governing and administrative bodies to be more open about the doings and especially the screwings of referees and match officials. Finally they answered our call and to be honest I am not surprised that it was a South African referee they saw when they said: there is one in the spotlight, put him up against the wall. So then, finally they have named and shamed; but will they be consistent and do the same when referees from New Zealand and Australia are involved? Jonker’s mistake was certainly not the first this year, but quite uniquely he is exposed by SANZAR. Could SANZAR be so bloody kind to point out all the mistakes made by referees in this year’s Super Series and also name and shame those idiots. Yes, I saw the Bulls’ knock-on; but I also saw the two penalty transgressions in Australia’s try against the Boks in last year's world cup. In the spirit of truth and to get closure, I believe all South Africans, including Jonker, will deeply appreciate an honest and official confirmation from SANZAR that Bryce Lawrence cost the Boks the world cup and that they will negotiate an apology from the IRB for not naming and shaming Bryce from New Zealand. Sanzar management and the referees would do well to bear in mind that they are there “manage” the game of Rugby in the Super 15 context and to apply the rules of rugby as defined and written by the IRB, in a fair, objective, not subjective manner and NOT to choke the life out of the game or to manipulate the outcome of matches!Certain keenly anticipated rugby “match-ups” become a LOTTERY… relative to who the match official is… (Now who has been saying this for years -Beeno barring refs and injuires) and too HELL with Sanzar and their Referees’ Association if they wish to cast doubt on the average Rugby fan’s ability to understand and interpret the laws of the game or that we, the fans, do not have a right to criticize or do not know what we are talking about!!!
In a recent match, for twenty five minutes of the second half, the match official made conscious decisions to manoeuvre the outcome in favour of the “chosen” team. To anyone with an inkling of the laws of the game and an ability to be unbiased, it was blatantly obvious. In an international cricket match suggestion of “match fixing” would abound…..
So I agree unreservedly with TruVanPunt’s view that Sanzar should mind their P’s and Q’s when it comes to openly criticizing a particular ref and take cognizance of the fact that they may NOT act in a subjective fashion when their mandate is to be a nonaligned Rugby Administrator! Hi Brendon, I have to disagree with your Bryce Lawrence-view for the very reason you mention; he is a good referee. On that day, when he did the Boks in, he had an experience that goes beyond a shocker.
Andre Watson says it was as if Bryce was in a mind space of his own. The question is what brought that condition on: anxiety? I don’t think. Tim Noakes suggested that the laws of bent science will prove that Bryce made more than the normal number of mistakes and agrees that something caused it.
I would say a third party caused Bryce to be in a space of his own. I believe the outcome of the game between the Boks and Aus was predetermined by a third party. I furthermore think it was the first occurrence of match fixing in an international game. SARU are a bunch of idiots thats why SANZAR walks all over them. They need to be more vocal about the injustices against SA teams and do this through the media the way NZ and Aus do !!! Once incident that really irked me was Masaga's hit on Mvovo....no penalty....no white card!!!How was that worse than Butch James the past weekend??? Come on SARU stop being pussies and talk up!!! As I said in a previous comment I think it was a knock and it seems that Steyn also thought so at the time. What baffles me, and I explained this to SAAB, is the heated reaction from SANZAR whilst they and the IRB to this day failed to criticise Bryce. (Bwahahahhaha nz made him ref of the year!!!)
If they find it so easy to name and shame Jonker they should not have a problem to admit that Bryce deliberately caused the Boks to lose: the laws of bent science will prove that if they care to investigate. If that ball did not fall forward as many I believe Bulls supporters love to believe, Morne Steyn, must be either the biggest poker player or very stupid for "deceiving" everybody on-field by standing still when what he "pretended" to make-believe to be a knock-on. And whalla, everybody stands still until someone shouts "No knock-on". Wonder who that was. SAAB, yes, it seems that there are differences of opinion whether the ball was knocked on or not. Personally I think it was a knock and that the referee made a mistake that cost the Brumbies.
The fact is SANZAR acted very uncharacteristically by pointing a finger in the referee’s eye. My argument is that they were thus far very reluctant to criticise their referees. Also, by doing this they should surely came on record about the Bryce-incident. The difference is that Marius had a bad game and that he made more mistakes than usually.
In the case of Bryce, he made more than the average amount of mistakes. If you use the theory of bent science you will find that Bryce made so many mistakes that he meant to end the Bok’s tournament. Jonker had a bad game but Bryce simply crooked.
Neither SANZAR nor the IRB ever criticised Bryce or launched an investigation. After all Bryce cost a team the world cup, the coach his job and broke a nation’s heart. Now weigh the consequences of the two scenarios up and tell me if it makes any sense that Marius was named and shamed. (They did boot him off their panel of elite refs) I really dont reckon a high qualified ref like Jonker would put his job on the line for a s15 game. No, he won’t but the allegation was not that he cheated. He was accused of bad refereeing. If you want to see what is cheat then go and have a look at Bryce in action in the Boks and Ausie game in NZ’s World Cup. "In the spirit of truth and to get closure, I believe all South Africans, including Jonker, will deeply appreciate an honest and official confirmation from SANZAR that Bryce Lawrence cost the Boks the world cup and that they will negotiate an apology from the IRB for not naming and shaming Bryce from New Zealand." How's this for relevance and topicality, DREAM ON! They did name and shame that fool that cost the Cheetahs the game against the Brumbies, Ausie ref... there was another one but I can't remember who it was. Then it is definitely becoming a tendency. The NZAR part are a bunch of wallies, but then the SA guys aren't far behind for meekly accepting it Saturdays game between Sharks and Chiefs, 5min to go, the ref penalises the Sharks for not releasing Chiefs player after tackle was made. No problem, good call. 3 Minutes to go the same transgretion this time the shoe is on the other foot, the Sharks was on the attack and trailing by just 2 points. This time he (NZ ref) punishes the Sharks for holding onto the ball. Very inconsistant and only 2 minutes apart I can't ever recall SA rugby fans being as fed up with a ref as they have been with BL. We have lost previous world cups without a beep. You can see this ref issue is boiling up and SA fans are just fed up with the bent refs and SANZAR goings on. Time to clean up your act as the SA Rugby fan is on to all you bent down under refs. As for us we have a few bad apples that need to be reprimanded and warned and dealt with. However I am not clear as to any policy statement from SANZAR saying they will name and shame refs - what is this all about? When did it kick in if it did kick in? Good though that ou Bonkers got hauled over the coals but consistency is they key. Fancy ou windpomp defending the indefensible like this. The mind boggles!!!!!!!!! Redsman watch ou BL be as good as gold!
