By Patrick McKendry, Digital Sport Reporter, 1news.co.nz
All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson has confirmed he will raise several points with the match officials after his side conceded nearly three times the number of penalties as the Springboks at Ellis Park.
Chief among them will be how the officials, mainly referee Andrew Brace, and his Irish compatriot Brian MacNeice, the television match official, contrived to miss the obvious knock-on before Mbongi Mbonambi’s try which opened the scoring for the home side.
It was a clear and obvious mistake by Mbonambi, who was also short of the line when he lost the ball. It was for just these sorts of incidents, broadcast live to a global audience of millions, that the introduction of the TMO was supposed to fix.
And while the egregious error was dodged by the All Blacks to a certain extent immediately after the 31-27 victory by the world champions –“we saw what you saw”, Robertson said – he confirmed last night that he would seek clarification.
“We’ll wait to hear back from them to see their review first and then we’ll pass our review on so there are no double ups,” Robertson said.
“We’ll ask the question if they don’t cover it – that’s normally how we do it. They’ll review and I’m sure they’ll come back and feel like that process could have been better.”
The All Blacks conceded 14 penalties to the Boks’ five in Johannesburg as Brace took an increasingly hard line on the visitors at the breakdown.
The Boks, playing in front of 62,000 partisan supporters, appeared to get the rub of the green with many of Brace’s decisions but Robertson said “we have to look at ourselves first”.
“We’ve just got to be cleaner and trust the system and yourself and minimise those opportunities for them [Boks] to be in your 22. There were some pretty upset boys and an upset changing room because we knew there were some key moments we didn’t nail in that last 15 [minutes].
“We had such a brilliant 65 with the effort and ball play. Our job now is to make sure we look at the things we can do better but also acknowledge the things we did well.”
Pressed on Brace’s decision making and whether the Boks, many of whom play in the Northern Hemisphere, may have had an advantage playing under his direction, Robertson replied: “We did our homework and had conversations with him. We did the best we could to make sure we understood what pictures he needed to see… a lot of the penalties we need to sort out, though.”
The All Blacks will be hoping for more consistent and more accurate decision making in the next Test at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, a game that will be refereed by Englishman Matthew Carley.
Rugby often throws up delicious ironies when they are least expected and Carley’s appointment probably qualifies as one of the more substantial, for it was he who officiated in the Test between the All Blacks and South Africa at Twickenham immediately before last year’s World Cup, a game marred by the incessant involvement of the TMO.
The All Blacks were penalised 14-11 by Carley, who dished out yellow cards to Scott Barrett and Sam Cane within a minute of each other in the first half and then showed another (rightly) to Barrett for a dangerous cleanout just before halftime which resulted in a red. The Boks’ 35-7 triumph was a record defeat by the All Blacks.
But it was the performance of TMO Tom Foley, another Englishman, which truly caught the eye.
Thanks to Foley’s interventions, the first half took one hour, and, due to the Englishman’s eagle eye, second-half tries to All Blacks wing Will Jordan and Boks centre Canan Moodie were scrubbed out for the smallest infractions.
Foley’s approach prompted plenty of angst around the rugby world, including from New Zealand Rugby’s referees’ boss Chris Pollock, who, in a Facebook post revealed by 1News the day after the Test, complained that it was “way over the top”.
What the All Blacks wouldn’t have given for a similar approach at Ellis Park.
It will be cold comfort for them to know that, according to World Rugby’s officials’ schedule, MacNeice will not be involved at Newlands on Sunday morning NZT.
Englishman Ian Tempest is the TMO. However, Brace is one of the touch judges along with Australian Jordan Way.
