Lam lays complaint

[travelling_gerry]

Lam lays complaint

29/03/2010 3:03 PM
Liam Napier

Sportal

Blues coach Pat Lam has launched a stinging complaint about the performance of inexperienced referee Garratt Williamson and his assistants in the 'gut-wrenching' 39-32 loss to the Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday.
Lam fired up on Monday, saying Williamson was a mere puppet as his assistants 'ran the game'.
"We are not happy with the officiating," an angry Lam stated. "A lot of the calls came straight off the touch judges. He [Williamson] only ignored one out of at least 15 calls. We felt they [his assistants] were running the game."



"We have reviewed the microphone feedback. The facts are every single call [suggestion from touch judges to the referee] was against white - our jerseys - and not one call for the whole game was against blue.
"When reviewing the game and listening to the microphone, all the calls from the assistants were against us and an inexperienced referee has listened to that."
Lam was confident Sanzar referees manager Lyndon Bray would follow up his complaint to ensure 'we don't get a repeat of that performance'.
He also pointed out one of Williams' assistants, Australian Paul Marks, was dropped by Sanzar in Round 4 after his failure to award the Sharks a penalty try in the final minutes of their 25-21 loss to the Waratahs in Sydney.
In a critical letter following that match Bray stated Marks would 'not officiate in the near future'.
"One of the touch judges was dropped by Sanzar and the other one was dropped by Australian Rugby Union," Lam said.
"I've never fired up about a referee before but this was significant. The Waratahs were doing exactly the same things but there were no calls from the touch judges or referee. It's very, very disappointing."
Meanwhile, All Black prop Tony Woodcock hyper-extended his neck against the Waratahs, which had tightened up badly. Scans done over the weekend had shown no long-term damage, but he was unlikely to play against the undefeated Bulls at Eden Park on Saturday.
"It's going to be a tough ask but that's the beauty of the game. We are happy and confident with what we are trying to do, but we have to eliminate errors," Lam said.


http://sportal.com.au/rugby-union-ne...omplaint-88529

[zimeric]

Someone call a waaaambulance!!! for crying out loud EVery team has had questionable calls against them this season.. unless there is a massive conspiracy for the refs to take it easy on the Tahs (who do seem to be getting an easier run)

Id prefer for the touchies to speak up than have 1 set of eyes run the game.

[Swee_82]

I'm not about to break out the tin-foil hat, but even the Fairfax papers have conceded that the Tahs have been on the favourable end of the whistle in 3-4 games they could just have easily have lost.
If they believe in karma, the Tah boys might be starting wonder just how bad it'll be when the tide turns.

[palitu]

for those with sports ears, i dont recall and touchy calling the bulls for offside or anything like that, im sure they probably were offside at some point... players always are...

[beige]

Force fans complaining about someone complaining about the referee? Well I never.

[hertryk]

Lam lays complaint

29/03/2010 3:03 PM
Liam Napier

Welcome to our World...!!!