South Africans dominate the referees' list for next year's Super 14

[jargan83]

South Africans dominate the referees' list for next year's Super 14.

From correspondents in Wellington, New Zealand

December 15, 2008

SOUTH Africans account for four of the nine referees in the inaugural Merit Panel of officials announced by SANZAR to take charge of next season's Super 14 matches.

South Africa New Zealand Australia Rugby (SANZAR) announced last month that it would use referees on merit rather than on nationality to officiate in the southern hemisphere provincial Super 14 series in 2009.

It means referees will no longer be barred from refereeing their countrymen in matches against a team from another nation.

The move was made to ensure the best players would be refereed by the best officials, SANZAR said.

South Africans Marius Jonker, Craig Joubert, Jonathan Kaplan and Mark Lawrence head the pool, which also includes Australians Stuart Dickinson, Matt Goddard and James Leckie and New Zealanders Bryce Lawrence and Steve Walsh.

SANZAR said the group would control at least 75 per cent of matches in the tournament while a back-up panel of seven referees had been selected to officiate when Six Nations appointments, injury or unavailability make Merit Panel officials unavailable.

It said changes may be made to the panel during the season depending on the outcome of regular assessments by the referees' selectors.

Agence France-Presse

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html

[mudskipper]

More man of the match Awards going to a few of these guys...

[Thequeerone]

[jono]

one tiny little iddy biddy question guys...

HOW ON GODS EARTH DOES JONATHAN KAPLAN GET SELECTED IN A MERIT BASED SYSTEM?

seriously... thats bollocks

[robyn <3]

My gosh. I looked at this list for about a minute and I still haven't picked my favourite ref.

I hate Bryce Lawernce most of all.. But then KAPLAN! And Joubert.. and for some reason I seem to dislike the other Lawernce... Many my dislike of Bryce has worn off. My maths teacher is bryce and i hate him, plus Bryce Lawernce ref'ed the game against the saders in 07 and that man deserves some serious wetern force water-bottle chucked at the back of his head (signed by Drew and Gits, naturally)

Anyway, I think I just hate all refs. I feel so mean

BUT OH MY GOD THAT IS A SHOCKING LIST OF REFEREES!!!

Could be worse.. Alan Lewis could be in the mix.

I think I should become a referee.

[oxleymoron]

Robyn, how can you be disappointed in a referees performance when we lost 53-0 to the crusaders in 07?

[robyn <3]

Robyn, how can you be disappointed in a referees performance when we lost 53-0 to the crusaders in 07?

I know, I know. I'm a little harsh. Maybe it's the kiwi accent, I find them irritating in rugby terms, specially if they are wearing a team jumper or a referee's shirt, which are more often than not the same thing (the rest of the time kiwi accents just make me laugh)

Personally, I think it's that he shares a name with my crazy maths teacher. We did play a bad game. Mind you, when the oppostition has an extra player for 80 whole minutes, things like that are expected.

[Ecky]

Robyn Robyn Robyn Robyn Robyn Robyn Robyn

I shall bite my lip, resist the very big temptation to comment and instead look forward to seeing you when you join The Dark Side....

[Ecky]

...personally, I was a bit surprised to see Goddard & Leckie there. Not complaining, just surprised.

The others are ok, remembering there's been a couple of key retirements in the last season.

Kaplan has been (in my view) highly rated for quite some time and, generally speaking, is pretty good. (yeah yeah, bring it on - with examples mind, not just your ranting) I have heard he is of Jewish faith and, when he's in the middle and the TJs/ARs are also Saffers, there's not the typical "Team of Three" us whistleblowers have come to know and love. Dunno if it's true but interesting.

I like Mark Lawrence's style and am trying to emulate some of his composure, presence and phraseology on the pitch in my games. I also think Bryce Lawrence is, generally, a pretty good ref. If you had Sports Ears (or just watched the Fox telecast of v 'boks/Proteas at Subi, some of his "off the ball" management was pretty impressive. imho




Let the floodgates open........

[Burgs]

Who would be missing from that group Ecky?
No names really spring to mind.
There is that tall skiny Aussie fella who did the Tahs Brumbies this year who did a pretty good job I thought.
I'm watching the '08 Force matches over the next few weeks so will be an interesting one to watch for.

[brokendown gunfighter]

thought Lyndon Bray may have been in the mix,although he had a couple of bloopers last season

[Burgs]

Yeah, good call bg, didn't think of him.

[mudskipper]

Last year SANZAR is governed by South Africans before they had it over to one of the other nations for a while....

A similar problem with not having a larger S14 semi final series ,in 2009. The SA chief administrators couldn’t refrain from being political and wouldn’t make a magnanimous decision on what was best for the S14 tournament. They could only see self interest…pity

[robyn <3]

Robyn Robyn Robyn Robyn Robyn Robyn Robyn

I shall bite my lip, resist the very big temptation to comment and instead look forward to seeing you when you join The Dark Side....

SORRY!! I mean I hate all refs excluding ecky? Just ones who have ref'd the force in a manner that I just... don't like.

That will be the day. I can't wait. I can bash Lote and award Drew a try for nothing and sin-bin anyone who makes a scrum collapse and blow my whistle at Phil Waugh and NO-ON CAN STOP ME! I have the power

[Thequeerone]

Ecky my biggest problem with the refs NH and SH at the moment is the interpretation of the laws - as a group they need to become more consistent and ping more or less the same things not just the bits they are "hot" on.

I'm all for free flowing rugby and accept that players will attempt to bend the rules to suit themselves - however the reffing of the breakdown has to improve enormously for the refs to regain the credibility they deserve.

Also watching Refs micro manage scrums ticks me off - at that level it should be possible to work out which team is not coming in straight or how they are cheating within 2 scrums and red card them so that it is as safe as possible.