Referee binned after Tahs error

[travelling_gerry]

Referee binned after Tahs error

• Wayne Smith
• From: The Australian
• March 11, 2010 12:00AM

AUSTRALIAN referee Paul Marks has been dumped indefinitely from Super 14 matches following his handling of the NSW-Sharks match, with SANZAR referees chief Lyndon Bray admitting yesterday a last-gasp penalty try should have been awarded to the South Africans.


Sharks coach John Plumtree complained bitterly after Saturday's 25-21 loss to the Waratahs at the Sydney Football Stadium that the Sydney-based Marks should have ruled Kurtley Beale's 78th-minute knock-down of a pass to Ryan Kankowski warranted a penalty try -- which would assuredly have handed the Natal side the victory.
Instead, Marks gave Beale a yellow card and only awarded the Sharks a penalty. From the ensuing lineout, he penalised Sharks prop Jannie du Plesis for obstruction in a rolling maul after he had lifted jumper Wilhelm Steenkamp to win the throw barely a metre from the NSW tryline.
The referees' selection panel of Australian Andrew Cole, South Africa's Tappe Henning and New Zealand's Colin Hawke, taking account of Marks's performances in his past two matches, voted to drop him from the Super 14 panel until he has rectified shortcomings in his game management. South African referee Pro Legoete has also been stood down indefinitely.


"There was some imbalance from a management perspective, how he (Marks) arrived at these big decisions and how they were presented," Bray said.
The SANZAR boss said Marks's decision not to award the Sharks a match-winning penalty try was only one event and his overall handling of the game was taken into account.
"In fairness to Paul, you could debate the penalty try ruling all day," Bray said. "We believe the right decision in the cold light of day was to award a penalty try, but you could argue why a referee would back off it."
Cole maintained that front-on video footage had shown that contrary to South African claims Kankowski would have had an unimpeded run to the tryline, Waratahs centre Tom Carter was coming across in cover defence.
"Admittedly he had a fair bit of work to do, and we all know how quick Kankowski is," Cole said.
"But Paul would have seen him in his peripheral vision . . . he would have known there was a defender there."
Cole will work with Marks on improving his game management, and is confident he will be back refereeing at the top level before the end of the Super 14 tournament.
But his demotion comes too late for the Sharks, who take a 0-4 win-loss record -- and a feeling that nothing is going their way -- into their match with the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Carter yesterday re-signed with the Waratahs on a two-year deal that will take him through to the end of 2012.
The battering-ram centre, who has won 32 Super 14 caps since making his debut against the Hurricanes two years ago, was initially on the Melbourne Rebels hit-list, although it is understood their interest in him had waned following his unspectacular start to the season.
"I've always been really happy here at the Tahs, and when they approached me to extend my contract I was always pretty likely to stay," Carter said.
The worry for Melbourne is that Carter's decision to remain with the Waratahs is likely to have a flow-on effect to other Sydney University players in their sights, especially five-eighth Daniel Halangahu, who is expected to receive a big-money offer now Berrick Barnes has also recommitted to NSW.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225839334082

[travelling_gerry]

[jazza93]

This is pathetic. Now every team will be whinging about refs. And if anything all the referees will feel under a bit more pressure now which usually leads to more weird decisions.

[JediKnight]

Absolutely the right decision.

In the long run, this sort of strict management could lead to the TMO being involved in some of these more 'controversial' on-field decisions.

[pieter blackie]

This is pathetic. Now every team will be whinging about refs.

What if the shoe was on the other foot with the Force playing the the Tahs and the Beale incident happened. You have gone of your head jazza !!!!

---------- Post added at 05:54 ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 ----------

The only sad thing is that the Tahs won that match

[oxleymoron]

This is the second year of non-neutral refs and probably the first time that there has been any major fallout of a refs performance during a game. I always have been a fan of neutral refs, because it takes out any potential element of "favouritism" towards their own country.

For me it won't matter, I'll still say "we woz robbed" with every decision that goes against the force.

[Burgs]

When I was watching I thought the only thing that stopped them scoring was the action taken by Beale.
The action taken by Beale was deemed to be illegal and resulted in a Yellow Card (ie cynical/deliberate) and a Penalty.
Therefore, as far as I can see, that action should have led to a penalty try.
That is, if it was a Yellow Card Penalty then it had to be a Penalty Try.

[blueandblack]

To me it seemed a legit attempt by Beale to get the ball (ie intercept), but it didnt come off. I'm a tad concerned/intrigued by his looking back at the field at the end, but no apparent cursing his bad luck.

[jazza93]

Really? If it was the tahs i would say the same thing. This is a huge over reaction over just one decision.

[Cookie]

I was more concerned over the penalty given for the lineout, the prop had never released the jumper at anytime and so was fine by me.

I think Beale was going for the intercept, I would have done the same in that position. This happens all the time on the field, and regardless if the man was unmarked it shouldnt be a penalty try.

But only Beale will know what he was thinking at the time, so unless the ref is a mind reader then there has to be benefit of doubt.

I'm a fan of neutral refs, Im sure if the ref was a saffa he would have likely awarded a penalty try.

[James]

Worse things have happened in refereeing decisions.

[AndyS]

In the long run, this sort of strict management could lead to the TMO being involved in some of these more 'controversial' on-field decisions.

Yeah, that'll sort it for sure. If they're lucky they'll get Ayoub to make the call...

[shasta]

To me it seemed a legit attempt by Beale to get the ball (ie intercept), but it didnt come off. I'm a tad concerned/intrigued by his looking back at the field at the end, but no apparent cursing his bad luck.

Absolutely agree. There is no way anybody could say that was a deliberate knock down. The referee has probably been binned not because he got the call wrong, and it was wrong, but rather in that he made a mistake in not following trough and awarding the try once he deemed it a yellow card offense.

Problem is that this logic applies to any deliberate law infringement so any referee who issues a yellow card for deliberate ruck infringements in try scoring situations, should award a penalty try?

[AndyS]

Even if he had swatted the ball down and had been given a red card, it is still only a penalty try if it stopped a probable try. Personally, I thought it was a fairly ordinary pass under pressure, 30m from the line, by a team that had already thrown a few clean into touch that day. I am not sure he shouldn't have awarded the penalty try, but I could certainly see a few reasons why he might have decided it wasn't "probable".

That said, it was ten times the penalty try than the travesty that Walsh awarded and I didn't think he controlled his game much better than Marks.

[Goldmember]

The Waratahs have all been issued with new gloves to ensure they catch those intercepts in future.
.

Seriously though, it was a terrible decision by the Ref, but the Sharks didn't do all that much to win this one.