Former lawyer Wayne Barnes keeps his cool in bruising Rugby World Cup final

He is suitable for his previous job (lawyer). When people like this are refereed and sent to the middle of the finals, the matches are messed up and the players' years of hard work, hope, dedication, and money are all lost because of one stupid decision. What he did hurts him till death. once a clown always clown!!!

I don’t have an issue with Barnes or his refereeing. There were contentious calls but you could justify them either way. Referees have the hardest job on the pitch and in tight games their errors are highlighted more than anybody else. The All Blacks were unlucky, to a degree, but the Red Card was down to the player actions, first and foremost. It wasn’t the referee’s fault.

The contentious issues I had was with Barnes admitting he called a Penalty to Savea wrong, while the kick was still awarded. That is weird anomaly in the Laws that, while a try and conversion can apparently be reversed, a Penalty kick cannot even when it is given in error.

I also felt at least one scrum in the last 10 minutes should have had a SA prop penalised.

Would it have made a difference? Probably, although the ABs would still have to have made their kicks. They had two opportunities given to move ahead in the scoreline (the conversion and the long distance penalty) and win - but they didn’t take them. They probably should have brought on DMac earlier too, and I still think Roigard would have been a much better player to bring on than Christie in that situation. But that is all down to the selectors and coaches. Not referees.

SA deserved to win, even if they were lucky. Their defeated opponents still need to look at themselves first, whether it is France with their lapse defence (4 tries conceded), England with their attacking limitations (no tries scored) or NZ with their lack of discipline (a Red and Yellow). No excuses.

The other foot

It’s so funny when the shoe is on the foot……😁

November 2022 after France beat South Africa… “South Africa Rugby is under increasing pressure to take action against Rassie Erasmus after the Rugby Football Union lodged a complaint over his social media posts concerning the refereeing of Wayne Barnes, who has been the subject of death threats.”

So what happens a year down the track, they choose Barnes to referee the World Cup final and expect him to be fair and impartial. Imagine what he and his family would have gone through if South Africa had lost the final?

SA won the World Cup getting the benefit of the doubt.

Congratulations to South Africa on going back to back and being first to 4... however I'm not going to overlook the elephant in the room.

I guess it was inevitable that the final of Rugby's showpiece tournament would be ruined and decided by the excessive head contact rules that have come into use in the last 4 years, and their subjective interpretation, which have already ruined a number of games for the fans.

Administrators can try to justify them on the basis of player safety and PC press (who are afraid of being osttracised by the establishment) can go along with them, but the Emperor has no clothes.

I believe the current situation is untenable and has to change. Rugby is a contact sport and the majority of head contacts that are currently being penalised with yellow and red cards are accidental and just an inevitable part of the playing the game, and, as such, will not become less frequent over time as a result of cards being handed out. Therefore If the purpose of handing out cards to discourage future infringements and avoid concussion law suits it's not working, and if you come back in 100 years time you will still be seeing the same types of accidental head contact incidents that occurred In this final (and other games over the last 4 years),

It will not be effective as a defense against any concussion class action that may be brought, because the majority of concussions in rugby fall outside of the curent head contact punishment rules anyway, and will continue to occur. Tacklers will continue to get concussed when their heads accidentaly come into contact with the ball carriers hip or shoulder, or when two tacklers coming from opposite sides of the ball carrier end up having a head clash, or when a player hits his head on the ground during a tackle etc. Also ball carriers very rarely punished for using their elbows to fend off tacklers, and, in fact, there appears to have been an example of this in the final which was not picked up.

One day there will have to be a rethink, but in the mean time games and tournaments are being ruined, or decided arbitrarily, by the subjectivity of the officials, for no useful purpose. (Note I'm not blaming the individual officials themselves, but the administrators who are issueing them with the instructions on how to interpret the rules)

Under the current rules Siya Kolisi should have got a red card, even though we know that no-one deliberately clashes heads with another player

However the subjective decision of the TMO was only to give him a yellow. In my view Savea is standing relatively upright, not crouched, so there is no mitigating factor. Kolisi's body position is irrelevant and so not mitigating. However if we must go there, then Kolisi initiated direct head contact and in my opinion only Savea's body position can be a mitigating factor. The fact that Kolisi is bent over and drives up is in no way mitigating, red card.

(But if I was running things it would not even have been a yellow)

Under the current rules Sam Cane gets a yellow card, which was later subjectively upgraded to red

In my view Jesse Kriel is crouching, in order to lower his centre of gravity as he drives into contact, which is a mitigating factor. 

Cane is standing in the normal position for a tackler, with legs slightly bent, and wraps his arms, so not reckless, and the ruling should have remained a yellow

(However if I was running things it would not even have been a yellow)

Jaa nee wat, hierdie ou weet niks van die sport. Hy’s net ‘n baba wat sy dummie verloo het. Nou moet hy sy duim suig. Ag shame 🍼

Police should go stop Barnes paid by Erasmus

Rugby need all blacks and not cheaters robbers coming from township.

SA shit country

The best team lost and best team was robbed .

Kids prefer all blacks… clown and not shit rugby boks

You right, kids like real rugby and not idiots like YOU!!

Suck it up butter cup. You lost and the best team won on the night. Just look at the score board and dry your eyes out Driss

Dude, I’m serious: What’s your first language?

The words appear to be English, but there’s no logic. If you do have an alcohol problem, please do not post when you’re under the influence.

A world cup without cheaters and robbers boks like before 1995.

Anyone in the world don’t care about SA. The real rugby country and representing is New Zealand.

Your country interests no one in the world : shit rugby and bad pub for the rugby. Kids prefer the real rugby : all blacks.

Worst clown referee . In retreat this clown

As a South African, I say that the call on Sam was unlucky. A yellow would’ve been suffice. Nothing like Owens tackles. Would’ve been nice to have seen Sam back on the field. Brilliant player with an unlucky call

If it wasn’t for the TMO’s always reviewing things then it wouldn’t happen. All the other WC there was no such thing. So this is going to be a more common thing happening in WC’s unfortunately

Barnes (and/or Foley the TMO in his ear) had a shocker