Originally Posted by
travelling_gerry
I don't know about you guys, but I sat seething most of last nights game, and it was nothing to do with how our guys were playing.
What pissed me off was the comments and advice that were coming from the Assistant Referees to the referee Glen Jackson.
The last few home games I have turned off the commentary on my Sports Ears and just listed to the referee channel. There, unlike the TV you can hear the calls from the AR's clear as a bell.
You would expect a game like last night which was so close that the calls about infringements called from the touchline would be about even, but NO.
Just about all the calls from the touch line to the ref were about pointing out Force errors or penalties.
The only calls in favor of the Force were in the 62-72 minutes where an AR called "White Offside" and one said "I didn't see the grounding but the ball was definitely over the line" when Sheehan scored his try.
( I actually at this point went racing for the program to see who the TMO was and was aghast to see the name George Ayoub, but was pleasantly surprised to hear the try awarded as George has NEVER ruled in favour of the Force while a TMO. I found out later it was someone else and the program was wrong)
A couple of minutes later when it was called "white offside" but when the ref asked for a number with the intention to sinbin another Tah the couldn't tell him the number. It was at this point that Ref Jackson said something along the lines of "thanks guys but I need a number next time".
One AR intervention was the calling of Longbottoms "high tackle" on Pretorious when Kbum was going in as low as possible and Pretorious was falling in the tackle and Kbum collided with his chest and then rode up over his head. Three points to the Tahs.
The real big pissoff for me was the comments 3 times from and AR of "good decision" when ref Jackson awarded a penalty against the Force and 1 time with the encouragement of 'good decision - keep going".
When Jackson asked the AR's in the 32-40th minutes about the scrum, the only input was "Blue bind dropping off" when Mafu was eventually sin binned but no comment about Ben Robinson twisting in the engagement to put Mafu on the ground.
Last night was not an isolated occurrence with AR's calling against the Force. A few weeks ago one AR's was giving the advice to the ref that "Brown is doing ....." or "Brown is doing...." and the ref had to ask "which number".
Maybe SANZAR are doing their best to get the best refs on the park but it leaves a lot to be desired to be putting the also rans on the touchlines.
The program last night listed the AR's as Ian Smith and Julian Pritchard.
Where are they from? NSW of course.