Lightning strikes twice with referee Alan Lewis haunting Wallabies again
Lightning strikes twice with referee Alan Lewis haunting Wallabies again
By Wayne Smith
December 01, 2008 NO correspondence was entered into on the field by referee Alan Lewis, according to Australia stand-in captain Phil Waugh, but there could be some polite communication between the Australian Rugby Union and the International Rugby Board over his refereeing display at Millennium Stadium.
The Wallabies lost only two of their five Tests on tour and the critical common denominator in both defeats, at least as far as the Australians are concerned, was that both matches were refereed by the 44-year-old Irishman.
Publicly, the Wallabies were saying nothing critical of Lewis's performance in Sunday morning (EDT) Test against Wales, but privately they were seething.
They believed his performance was worse than in the Bledisloe Cup Test in Hong Kong when he effectively kept the New Zealand in the match in the first half while the Australian side was running rampant.
After that performance, ARU chief John O'Neill fired off a caustic note to IRB referees manager Paddy O'Brien asking if the IRB had changed its policy of only appointing the best referees to the best matches. O'Brien replied in like vein and there the matter rested, precariously in abeyance awaiting Lewis's next Wallabies appointment, in Cardiff.
Not a word was said about him in the lead-up to the match and there was even speculation coach Robbie Deans might have selected Waugh ahead of George Smith to remove one of the main points of annoyance from the Hong Kong Test, even though the Wallabies felt Smith was harshly penalised at times.
The softly-softly approach yielded no fruit, with Lewis again heavily penalising the Australians against Wales, the final count 12-7 against them.
As in Hong Kong, he savaged the Wallabies for going off their feet at the breakdown while largely turning a blind eye to the Welsh when their enthusiasm got the better of them.
Astonishingly, he allowed Welsh centre Tom Shanklin to tackle Wallabies winger Digby Ioane in the air in the dying minutes (an automatic penalty) but seconds later caught Drew Mitchell for allegedly joining the ruck from the side.
When Mitchell argued the point, Lewis marched the Australians 10 metres and from what was then nearly point-blank range, Stephen Jones kicked the goal that put Wales out to a 21-13 lead that effectively made the match safe for them.
But it was his scrum rulings that most bewildered the Wallabies, who went into this Test confident they could at the very least achieve parity with Wales in the set piece.
What talking Lewis did before each scrum engagement seemed directed almost exclusively at the Australians. While he regularly lectured Wallabies front-rowers Al Baxter, Stephen Moore and Benn Robinson, he scarcely spoke to the Welsh front-rowers who stood about with innocent looks on their faces, ready to throw their arms theatrically into the air seeking a penalty any time a scrum collapsed on the slippery surface.
Time and again, Lewis accommodated them, whistling free-kicks or penalties to Wales and then shooing away Moore whenever he approached in an attempt to find out what the Wallabies were doing wrong.
"There wasn't a lot of correspondence out on the field," sighed Waugh, who took over the captaincy when Stirling Mortlock was helped off in the second minute after a sickening collision with Welsh centre Jamie Roberts.
"That made it difficult to work out exactly what was going wrong but the scrum has been constantly improving so tonight was disappointing.
"He (Lewis) made the decision. Once it's made there's no point trying to go into there to change it."
Effectively the Wallabies played without an attacking scrum, clearing the ball only four times from their own set piece.
It is understood the official IRB assessment of Lewis's handling of the Hong Kong Test was less than flattering and the ARU will be sweating on the report of Sunday's official referee assessor, Michel Lamoulie of France.
O'Neill is anxious to know how Lamoulie rated Lewis's performance.
"I'll have another conversation with the IRB and I'll ask about the assessment, just out of interest," O'Neill said.
"I'm not offering a comment one way or another on Lewis's performance. I'm just interested in the assessment."
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