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Nigel Owens weighs in on Erasmus' Tweet storms with a stern message
By Sam Smith
Former referee Nigel Owens is the latest high profile name to step into the debate around Springboks Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus and his methods of social media use.
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After serving a 12-month ban following the explosive hour length tirade during the Lions tour, Erasmus immediately began sharing videos of match footage on his Twitter after South Africa’s 19-16 loss to Ireland in Dublin.
This activity intensified in the wake of the 30-26 loss to France in Paris with Erasmus going on a tweet rampage sharing a host of clips that didn’t go the Springboks way with thinly veiled captions.
Owens, one of the game’s most prominent refereeing figures, has weighed in on the developments on The Telegraph’s Rugby Podcast, admitting he was initially shocked and suspected possibly a fake profile.
“I saw these [videos] come up and I was thinking ‘is this his genuine profile? Is he doing this?’” Owens said.
“To me, we don’t need that in the game and I’d have thought he’d have learned his lesson by now, if it is him doing this. There’s a procedure in place.
“If you’re not happy about decisions, or you have questions about decisions – as every coach would have – referees can’t get everything right, there is a process to go through.
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“You send your timeline to the referee manager, which would be Joel Jutge at World Rugby, and they would look at that with the referee.
“Then they would reply to the coach and say: ‘Yeah, this could have been penalised’ or ‘the referee is correct here’.
“Or, like a lot of things in rugby, it’s: ‘This is a grey one. This is what the referee feels and it’s his interpretation of it [but] it could well have gone the other way’. That’s the nature of the game.”
A portion of South African supporters have been right behind the Director of Rugby claiming it proves bias against them, while others are getting tired of Erasmus’ antics which only occur after Springbok losses.
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The former Welsh international referee didn’t believe this approach by Erasmus was in line with rugby values or good for the game, which has been heavily divisive online for fans.
“Once you start putting things out there on social media questioning decisions, that’s not what this game is about, I don’t think. I don’t think this it’s right and I don’t like it.
“Go through the proper channels, and as long as everyone is open and honest and transparent… that is the way forward, not [to do it] on social media.”
Back in the day it was impossible to win in South Africa due to referee purposely not penalising South African infringements. In the modern game it seems Northern hemisphere refs are not penalising their Northern neighbours (to the letter) as they do Southern Hemisphere players. They do often referee the northern players in the European leagues so familiarity and friendships may form an unconscious bias?
My last comment the ref has plenty of assistance to make the right decision as we have seen at nausiam in the last few seasons TMO ect so when he doesn't use it like Barnes on Saturday last try against the Boks it obviously leads to some questions
A process at the IRB is a farce at the end of the day the match was lost the record books will show the win not the poor refereeing
I'm and South African supporter and agree with Nigel Owen, there is a proper way of dealing with these type of situations. I just wonder if
1) The channels in the process he describe is that open to suggestions and criticism from teams ?
2) If he don't think it is time that world rugby should look at these perceived poor 50/50 decision and then either :
1) Educate the public on how referees interpreted it
2) Change the laws that there is uniformity with interpretations of the rules. Uniformity on interpretations of Rugby Rules is crucial in the modern era for all stakeholders !