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Ref Watch: Who will be given the task of rugby's grandest contest?
By Paul Smith
Could we end up with a New Zealand versus England World Cup final?
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Given that Steve Borthwick’s misfiring team will first need to reverse their 2019 final defeat against a South African side who played superbly to see off hosts France it seems unlikely.
However it is possible and if so, in addition to surprise finalists, we may also have a very unexpected World Cup final referee.
With Jaco Peyper probably ruled out by injury – although this is not yet confirmed – and Wayne Barnes plus Ben O’Keeffe ineligible due to their nationalities, of the four quarter-final referees France’s Mathieu Raynal would be the last man standing.
I am reliably informed that World Rugby’s post-pool stage pecking order had the four number one touch judges appointed to the quarter finals as their fifth to eighth ranked referees behind Barnes, Peyper, O’Keeffe and Raynal.
Of these Karl Dickson, Matthew Carley and Paul Williams are also ineligible on nationality grounds which leaves Australian Nic Berry as the next best option to Raynal. Interestingly Berry and Raynal were two of the three referees who took charge of test matches in the 2021 Lions series.
More probably New Zealand will play South Africa with Wayne Barnes in charge and Raynal on the touchline but never say never…
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Prior to then don’t be surprised if Barnes is given a rest from next weekend’s semi-finals to ensure he doesn’t follow Peyper to the physio’s room ahead of the final.
My best guess therefore is that Raynal will take charge of New Zealand v Argentina with O’Keeffe whistling England v South Africa.
South Africa v France
Anyone fortunate enough to have Stade de France tickets for both Saturday and Sunday’s quarter-finals has been treated to an amazing weekend of rugby.
From a refereeing perspective, the biggest eye-catcher from South Africa’s win over the hosts was the incredible discipline shown by both sides who conceded only six penalties apiece plus the yellow card shown to Eben Etzebeth.
An all-Kiwi officiating team enjoyed a generally sound night with there probably being only one major talking point at the end of the tightest possible encounter.
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This came 12 minutes from time when France kicked off following Etzebeth’s try and ended up conceding a penalty on halfway after the ball went loose and they killed it on the ground when in retreat.
English TV coverage focused on the breakdown penalty – which with multiple hands on the ball could have gone either way before O’Keeffe rewarded Kwagga Smith. But prior to that was there a knock-on by Deon Fourie which took the ball out of Antoine Dupont’s grasp?
Since Handre Pollard then turned the penalty into three points with a mighty thump of his right boot and France ultimately came up short by one point these were clearly key calls which hopefully were reviewed ‘behind the scenes’ by the TMO.
Keep the ref posted
There were a handful of really creative ideas in both teams’ game plans and it set me wondering whether O’Keeffe had been made aware beforehand of some of their planned innovations?
For example, when France added centre Jonathan Danty to the front of a third-minute lineout they had nine forwards and three lifting pods which is legal but also slightly unusual.
And when South Africa’s Damian Willemse called a mark late in the first half the Springboks promptly exercised their right (under law 20) to take a scrum instead of a free kick. Presumably, this was influenced by a feeling that their front row were getting on top – a scrum penalty subsequently confirmed this as a good choice – but this was a very unusual option to take inside their own 22.
Clearly you would expect an international referee to interpret these situations correctly despite seeing them for the first time in the red-hot cauldron of a game being played at 90 mph. However, by quietly telling him what might happen beforehand teams take away any possibility of O’Keeffe being caught out by their innovative approach.
Faffing About
South Africa’s bench proved the difference between these two outstanding teams and it was their replacement scrum-half Faf de Klerk that created a situation which I thought O’Keeffe handled superbly.
With the Springboks piling pressure on the tournament hosts the former Sale no.9 collected the ball at the base of the breakdown four minutes from time and fired it directly at a French player who was still on the ground a couple of metres behind him following the previous phase.
Clearly this was an attempt to ‘buy’ a penalty which would have given the Boks three easy points at a vital point in the match – but instead it proved a waste of good attacking possession since O’Keeffe promptly told de Klerk that he was not interested and gave a scrum.
Clever play or sharp practice…take your choice, but for me it was great to see this handled so firmly.
Boks- ABs final.
Barnsy is the man.
Best ref in the world.
If AB / SA i don’t mind it being O Keeffe even him being a New Zealander. I know it can’t be but not that keen on Barnes rather have the France ref he is calm cool and collective just feel Barns sometimes gets frantic.
AB vs SA. Luke Pearce would be good for a fast flowing no cheating game.
If it ends up being a NZ and South Africa final, I won’t mind Barnes reffing. He is probably the most experienced ref and it will be a nice accolade for him. Plus I think he interprets scrums the best out of all the refs.
With regards to the Faf incident (passing into French player) I feel it should have been a penalty as the player was upright on his knees and did not make an effort to stay out of play. Pollard was in the line of pass. But there were other marginal calls going either side. No ref ever gets everything 100%. It’s part of the game.
imo barnes and o’keeffe were excellent, letting the game flow and being consistent at the breakdown. naturally, some mistakes were made, none to influence the final scores. looking forward to more of the same. those two guys, (jaco could also be included if fit), should be calling the last four games.
Grand final referees also officiated semi-finals and quarter-finals in all of the most recent RWCs, I’d say Barnes will likely get a semi-final and the grand final with Raynal getting the other semi-final (should be O’Keeffe but the French are causing a louder stink than the Fijians).
I would like to hear the forums thoughts on the disallowed try by Samoa against England called by the video ref After the conversion had been taken. I am interested to hear about the video refs authority. Is he in charge or is he/she an assistant?
I didn’t like Raynal’s management of the ENG-FIJ game at all. I think he completely lost control of the game and the players. During the scrums he had no clue whatsoever, he appeared to be randomly calling penalties applying every time a different standard and he simply avoided to take any decision at all in the very key moments. He appeared to be very tentative in many ways and you could really feel that the players from both side had no respect at all for his decisions. I sincerely hope he will not be selected as the referee for the final game just because he is from France, that would be very unfair, as well as a slap in the face of Barnes and Luke Pearce, who have been by far the best referees during the World Cup.
I hope we see Barnes deal with NZE v ARG and Raynal take RSA v ENG. O’Keefe is fantastic at letting the game flow, but on a purely technical basis there’s no one as reliable as Raynal.