Today's Rugby World Cup quarter final match between South Africa and Australia was dominated by one man: Bryce Lawrence the New Zealand referee. During and after the game his name dominated twitter in South Africa. Not many comments were complimentary!
Before the game Lawrence had come in for criticism for the way he handled the recent match between Ireland and Australia which Ireland won. It looks like he had decided to reverse his poor decisions against Australia in that match by ignoring many of their transgressions in today's match. Hands in the ruck and high tackles by the Australians were ignored while South Africa got penalised at every opportunity. In the 71st minute he gave a match winning penalty to Australia after the assistant referee told him a South African player had tackled a player in the air at the line out. The commentators were of the opinion that the player had just fallen over after his team mates had not supported him.
At numerous times in the game he played advantage for Australian transgressions, but called 'advantage over' with no real benefit for South Africa. Other referees allow play to go on, but go back for the original penalty if nothing comes of the advantage.
Referees should not be interpreting the laws of the game. They should be consistent and should be held to account for their failures.
Maybe it's time for a change of the laws: Penalties should only be given for dangerous play and deliberate actions which prevent the opponents from scoring. All other transgressions should be penalised with a free kick.
There is no shame in losing to Australia, but the manner in which South Africa lost today after dominating ball possession and territory leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Bad referees should not be able to influence a match to that extent.
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