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Ref Watch: In defence of Matthew Carley
By Paul Smith
A brilliant game of rugby came to a breathless conclusion in Bordeaux when Semi Radrada just failed to hang on to a difficult skidding pass and score the try that would have given Fiji a chance to claim the spoils against Wales with the ensuing conversion.
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The contest was controlled by an all-English set of onfield officials led by referee Matthew Carley with Irishman Brian MacNeice in the TMO chair.
Other than asking both captains to keep their players quiet and stop requesting TMO reviews Carley had a straightforward evening until Fiji piled on the pressure as they tried to turn round a two-score deficit in the closing 25 minutes.
The penalty count stood at a relatively low eight apiece at the end of the third quarter, but it is how Carley opted to manage the final stages of the match that has since drawn plenty of comment. I will therefore attempt to explain this sequence of events through a referee’s eyes…
56 to 62 minutes
When Fiji piled pressure on the Wales line they won four penalties in a six-minute period either side of the hour mark. Two of these were against Ryan Elias and all were either at the breakdown or for offside.
At this point Carley issued Wales skipper Jac Morgan with a warning that his team’s persistent infringement was likely to be punished with a yellow card should a further penalty be awarded in the near future.
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Could Carley have issued this warning one penalty earlier? Perhaps – but since the infringements were not all inside Wales’ ‘red zone’ or for identical offences this call was not clear-cut.
In addition, because of the relatively balanced and low penalty count in the match prior to that point his tolerance level will have been slightly higher than on other occasions.
Yellow Card Scenarios
The key point to understand here is that – foul play apart – a yellow card is shown in one of two situations.
The first of these occurs when a player commits a cynical one-off offence which denies the opposition what the ref considers a possible (rather than probable) try-scoring opportunity.
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The prevention of a probable try is punished by the award of a penalty try with the transgressor also getting a yellow card providing he can be identified.
The second is when a team commits multiple offences either in a short period of time or in the same situation (eg at the scrum). These infringements may be committed by different players – for example sequential scrum collapses may be caused by the tight head, hooker then the loose head – but once a team warning is issued it is the last offender who becomes the fall guy and receives the card even if he is being penalised for the first time in the match.
64 minutes
After the warning was issued Wales managed to escape their 22 without conceding any further penalties and when they drove a maul rapidly down the right-hand side of the Fiji 22 Lekima Tagitagivalu collapsed it around ten metres from his own line. This is clearly a cynical act and the islanders’ no.7 was immediately and correctly sent to the sin bin.
66 to 68 minutes
Wales then scored to lead 32-14 and six minutes later at a fairly innocuous midfield situation their replacement prop Corey Domachowski lunged into the side of a breakdown. Because Wales were recently issued a team warning their no.17 is correctly shown a yellow card.
70 minutes
Wales collapse a scrum in their own 22. Could this have earned them a second yellow card following the earlier team warning? Domachowski’s sin-binning does not wipe the slate clean, but most referees allow one further penalty before then going to their pocket for a second time.
On this basis, and possibly also because this was the first scrum penalty conceded by Wales, the immediate award of a second yellow would therefore have been harsh.
It is also worth noting that because the scrum was not moving quickly forwards or in range of the try-line this does not merit a card in its own right as a one-off offence.
72 minutes
When Fiji score a converted try through Josua Tuisova eight minutes remain. Wales incur Carley’s wrath through dawdling back to the restart and he opts to stop the clock and warn them rather than award a penalty on halfway to Fiji.
Having not previously spoken to Wales about time wasting going straight to a penalty here would be considered as unnecessarily ‘pulling a cat out of a bag.’
77 minutes
With three minutes remaining Fiji looked to have driven Penai Ravai over for a try only for Carley to rule it out following TMO review.
While the ball was touched down in goal, the Fijian carrier initially went to ground with his left knee a metre short of the line then made a second movement that involved more than placement of the ball with his arms and upper body.
This therefore led to Wales correctly being awarded a penalty – had Ravai’s momentum alone taken him over the line the try would have stood.
What a joke….Wales needed him to win….
That unpenalised time wasting by Wales reminds me of how NZ bet the poor old Oziebros due to folley's moment too much. NZ got lucky. So did Wales. Different ref and the Oziebro's would have won, maybe Fiji too. All everyone is asking for is coherence, instead we get these dramatic game changing Inconsistencies.
Beware of WR and the officiating appointments. The focus is on make a NH team winning the RWC 023: England Four (4), Ireland (1) Georgia(1) and France (1). And the SH: New Zealand (2), Australia (2), South Africa (1).
Stop defending Carley. Instead let's revisit that NZ v Springboks match and those questionable first half penalties. And then lets go revisit his other matches. I don't buy the racism charge because that doesn't seem to have been in the issue in the previous match but he definitely seems to have a penchant for playing the 16th man.
Thank you for explaining this so eloquently.
Hopefully people will stop criticising this poor man, with their very unpleasant views.
The job is hard enough without such cruel criticism.
I hope he is doing ok.
Placing poor performance beyond question is not a creative response. It's a top end sport and should be coherent.
Agree with you M.
This ref baiting nonsense is harming the game no-end.
I really wish that these 'screamers' would dry their eyes off and go watch some other sport.
Refereeing rugby is difficult enough without the constant barrage of abuse by these 'whingers'.
BS. Ref does all he can to find different ways to ensure Wales were favoured.
On stroke of halftime Fiji score. Ref says on field decisión is a try.
Normally the question then is, 'is there a clear and obvious reason why I cannot award the try?'
There was none and at no time.did the Fiji player lose contact with the ball.
Also it was a no arms tackle that stopped him. Yellow card and penalty try.
Fiji robbed again by the colonisers.
You're a sad case Loveni, screeching like this about colonisers.
Shame on you. Prat.
It's true that refereeing is tough but sometimes you have to put your hand up and say you've got it wrong. a) Was the maul collapsed? Elliot Dee had broken away from the maul before anything went to ground. It's a fair try no doubt but there was no yellow. Five mins before that there were 2-3 cynical fouls that stopped certain tries. Biggar jumped up to smash his head and shoulder v Radradra's head in 22 mins. If the same had been done to Biggar he'd be writhing on the ground but no response from TMO. There's too much that smells wrong here.
The world is not blind. You all are crooked and corrupted. Your interpretations are skewed as a result of your preconceived discrimination of Wales opponents even before the game started. shame on all your officials.
Before the first round of the Rugby World Cup 2023, people throughout the world people thought that the Player's and the matches were going to be the main focus of this world cup!
Unfortunately that hasn't happened, "WHY?" Because, going by feedback from the so called rugby fanatic's, the main focus seems to be about the match officials, in regards to how they have handled certain aspects of the game they were in charge of. For example, the number of penalties,/free kicks awarded, number of line out infringements awarded, how many scrum, mauls, the
numbers of penalties, free kicks, and resets were enforced.
Thank you for these explanations.Now who wants be a ref,?
While I concur with the author saying the Fijian yellow card was cynical pulling the mail down, he has failed offer an explanation for Bigga who cynically enveloped the Fijian scrum half preventing the pass from an offside position 1 metre from the Welsh try line - equally cynical
Yes this was big miss. Extremely cynical and prevented Fiji from using a huge amount of space out wide. Can't remember if they were numbered up, but given it was 1m out, had that penalty not been given away, the halfback could have touched down himself.
Or that the Fijian card would not have happened if he had made the right call on the Biggar incident.
Both teams played some great rugby & scored some cracking tries Wales were in a winning position for 85% of the match so for people to say Wales stole the win from Fiji is total nonsense in fact the Welsh defence won the game in the end making close to 250 tackles unfortunately the fijian defence was not great despite making only 70 tackles in the whole game they conceded 4 tries
Best game of the opening round Time to move on & stop moaning
What’s your take on the disallowed try by Fijian prop Mawi… According to TMO there was no ‘press’… whereas a try can be awarded as long as there’s no separation which in this case there was none - and the TMO confirmed… yes control maybe questionable but there was no separation… which would be a try any given day…
Absolute steal! it is beyond belief WR appoints a British ref to officiating a British team vs Fiji.
Never a wiser word said Filstrup! In fact, it beggars belief that any refs from the planet earth are allowed to referee teams from the planet earth. Makes a mockery of the whole attempt at non-bias!
The issue here is the headline, shouldn’t be the headline … the game shouldn’t be talking about refs. Every World Cup, the judiciary and law makers test their metal. Teams have to slowly build into the RWC, being cautious not to loose talented players to a red card or injury. Wales played outside the spirit of the game and the nonsense of an 80 minute game gaming 2 hours because of water breaks, fake injury breaks etc … hence the ABs don’t bother turning up until it’s necessary. Need a big tidy up over the next week, otherwise audiences will drop off.
Ref is beyond criticism. Hence the defence...
Officiating is the white elephant in the room, and no one seems to acknowledge it is killing the game. A complex game with a complex laws needs more consistency. Where are the stats and the metrics on the refs? why one man and his whistle blows every 5 on average, killing the game? and the other one lets the game flow on? I am not saying some refs are biased they just blow instinctively. Rucks are a mess, not legally contested by most of the teams. Sometimes 50/50% is more 60-40% to one team, like lottery. And then we have the pundits talking on "ill discipline' and giving their own interpretation of the laws.
@Paul Smith - You've mentioned that a penalty was given for the 2nd movement by Peni Ravai. However, Fiji had an advantage for offside and was awarded a penalty after the double movement call. Why wasn't a yellow issued for the offside given the they were on a team warning? Why are you trying to defend these outrageous calls at the 77th minute? They would have been 2 players down and Fiji would have called for a scrum. If the scrum wasn't pushed over, an overlap would have appeared for the backs to score a try.
It's difficult trying to cross a try line that's defended by Welsh players and an English referee.
Just watched the game back. 56 mins Fiji get a penalty halfway between the 10 and 22. Not the red zone in fact Wales have the ball but go off their feet in the ruck. Three penalties from 5m then the next penalty is a yellow to Domanchowski. Fiji did exactly the same at 26 mins in the first half Fiji give three penalties away within 5m of the line. Wales score during advantage so no warning is issued. Everyone screaming consistency. Go watch the game back before running yours mouths.
61st minute Wales warned for infringements near their try line
77th minute Wales warned for infringements near their try line
You do the math…
Have watched it mate, seems like you watched a different match to others. When majority of the people are shouting that Ref was inconsistent then obviously something is wrong right. Stop defending what’s wrong be fair mate not bias. All these justifications you guys giving is shit mate. A good game ruined by unfair calls by the Ref and his team. Rugby is not fun to watch because we have some confused people like you and others trying to run this game. If you don’t agree with me then I would ask you to go and read how much controversies we have already heard off in just the first round of RwC. So what does this tell us?? That there are some idiots trying to run this game and they are confused as well like you.
It's a decent overview of the last 20 mins, but fails to take into account the previous shambles. The warning given to Morgan in the last quarter had already been issued in the first half without any follow-up; there was plenty of the standard 'coaching' whereby a ref sees a clear offence and instead of blowing up advises the guilty party to modify their wrong behaviour - this seems to benefit Tier 1s and those with advantages of language and familiarity, but that might just be unconscious bias on my part. Also, when there is an on-field decision for a try, shouldn't that require clear and obvious rebuttal? When slow-mo isn't clear and obvious then the next step is surely not to ask for super-slo-mo but to stick with the on-field decision. When the TMO says things like "I don't think so" or "I'm not sure that was okay" that is not clear and obvious either. So by the time we get to the easy bit that Paul has nicely covered, Carley had shafted the Fijians and ruined the game for them and the neutral.
Leaving RefWatch aside, it was a very exciting game and there were some great performances and moments from both teams. Wales will be more than happy with 5 points. Fiji are publicly very humble and gracious with their two, but the shouldn't have to be.
Ref could have issued cards when it was due but according to ref, repeated warnings was enough to let go of the infringements 🤮
Despite the introduction of Shakespeare to the arguments I fear the quality of the debate is deteriorating. The Angry emojis are ascending! Why does ‘Angry’ alway win on social media? 🤣
...and here I was thinking it was the stupid, an often passive aggressive, lol emoji that always wins on social media.
Because some dickheads can’t ref fairly .
You are just whinging just because Wales won. If you want to talk about penalties, when the Fijian player was yellow carded for cynically pulling down a maul that was advancing on his try line, why wasn't Wales awarded a penalty try? Why weren't the Fijians penalised for sealing off? You just want to whinge because Wales won, you bunch of one-eyed hypocrites.
I don’t think people are angry with Wales win, they defended well and won great but this game was not officiated fairly and that’s what people are not happy about. Wales committed lots of fouls in the last 20 mins of the game without having a player sent off. That’s smart right but that’s why you have a dam Ref to make sure a game is Played fairly but in this game this ref was clearly allowing the Wales team to commit these offences near their goal line. Mate, Wales won well done to them but this game is becoming shit to watch as the refs are not consistent and this has cost a tier 2 nation a rwc game.
Carley always has a bad match. The "knock-on" by the posts should have been a penalty try to Fiji for the shoulder on shin tackle by number 2. Yet Carley is getting promoted? "The insolence of office" is how Hamlet put it.
Carley shouldn’t be anywhere near a RWC after his disgraceful display at Twickenham a few weeks ago.
It was the same act produced by the Fijian #11 and was penalized. But for Wales, no, they cannot be defeated coz they in the Tier 1.
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
(Claudius, act 3 scene 3, Hamlet)
Paul Smith, all these explanations you have taken time to write is full of shit and in Wales favour. You should stop defending the ref because the reality is he had a shit game especially in the last 20 mins. A penalty is a offence straight up and continuation of this is even bigger offence. This allowed Wales to make different kinds of offence while defending near their own line. Don’t you think it’s harsh on Team Fiji that this continued and Wales were just given warning? You can’t justify all this. World Rugby is just shit like you and this game is becoming favoured to tier 1 nations. You guys just be happy with it and should just have your own shit tournament and please keep your explanations up your arse!!
Bigger was surely cynical when interrrupting the attack less than 5m from the line from an offside position - surely a straight yellow? Also the double no arms 'tackle' that caused the Filian played to knock on when attempting to ground the ball - surely a straight yellow again and a Penalty Try - Just asking for a friend who is a ref.....
Seems that WR and its media puppets are trying too hard to deflect and cover up yet another catastrophic and embarrassing decision by one of their officials (Angus Gardner yet again in this case) regarding the non sanction of a South African illegal tackle. Head contact is a read according to WR's current scriotures unless it involves an offending SA playee in which case not even a penalty is awarded against the offender. Not good for rugby as a sport and yet again reinforcing that SA can get away with any amount of blatant infringements without sanction as has been the case for the past 30 odd years.
Seems too me just like the English press a load of English fans unhappy that Wales played a better game were able too score tries against a side that humiliated a very strong England side more whining from the English too hide their sides ineptitude
Excellent writing. A good, reasoned, balanced and precise assessment of the last 20 minutes of the game.
I'm sorry but it's not at all a precise assessment!! The last part of the article is totally wrong.
Quote: "While the ball was touched down in goal, the Fijian carrier initially went to ground with his left knee a metre short of the line then made a second movement that involved more than placement of the ball with his arms and upper body.
This therefore led to Wales correctly being awarded a penalty – had Ravai’s momentum alone taken him over the line the try would have stood."
This is utterly wrong!! Fiji was awarded a penalty on the play (not Wales) because they were playing with an advantage. Fiji opted to play a scrum and got another penalty!! So two additonal Wales penalties are missing from the article....
At this stage Carley decision not to award another yellow card to Wales players appears completely wrong.
I think the time taken on a number of occasions, especially in the last 20 minutes, by Wales setting their scrum after Fiji have set up, very cynical or wise depending on who you support. Holding your position in scrum formation takes energy and muscle control, while the Wales pack are taking a breather. Matthew Carley should have issued a warning and then next time award a penalty.
Biggar’s penalty on the line was far more cynical than the Fiji one. Not giving a penalty there set a precedent. Either Biggar should have been carded or the Fijian shouldn’t have. They certainly should have got the warning after 3 red zone offences, not after 4.
Following domachowski’s yellow, the slate was wiped clean which was also wrong. Should have been 3 wales yellows, not 1.
Biggar's penalty, knowing a Fijian penalty had already been awarded, very cynically prevented Fiji from playing the ball, with the real possibility of a Fijian try. Biggar should have been yellow carded. How Fiji then played the resultant penalty may have been different.
Agreed big maul. All the "explanations" and justifications don't hide the facts and what was SEEN. Biggar was very cynical and there was repeated infringements. Can put lipstick on it but it's still a pig.
A single ball carrier 4m out vs a maul that's just ran over fiji for 10m that got pulled down with 5m to go?
Nice. Actually headline should read wtf with .this shit. 'king stitch up. Bunker needs a daisy cutter down it
What about the no-arm tackle that was deemed to have used an imaginary arm? What about the head contact by Biggar, tackling upright—not even reviewed?
Your understanding of the red zone is not inline with everyone else's understanding of it.
98% of players, ex-players and coaches all agreed, as well as fans, besides you and Welsh fans who understandably are just happy with their team's resolve.
Yep absolutely weird. There was not even a hint of an attempt to wrap and yet the TMO and Ref seemed fine with it? I couldn't believe my eyes.
Wales played well but should have lost Elias along with a penalty try and Matthew Carley was VERY lenient towards the end, should have been another yellow.
Two evenly matched teams but Fiji would have edged it if they got the rub of the green with the ref.
Elias used his arm you can literally see him lifting and attempting to wrap. How about Nayacelavu shoulder charge on Liam Williams. We can play the what about this game all your like. The end result is still the same. Fiji could have won that game but Wales did.
Try prevented by illegal tackle. Turn over Welsh ball. Epic 'king fail...
Thank you
Well the defense is as the refereeing : poor
RWC's product value must be protected. A game is a game but money is money.