Law Discussion - Burger consistency

Consistency is such a watchword when it comes to refereeing. Is it sometimes perceived to lose out to personal feelings?

People do not call referees cheats any more. They just plead for consistency, preferably from referee to referee but also within a match.

You have heard it: “All we want is consistency.”

By consistency they mean treating similar incidents in similar ways. No two incidents are exactly the same but there are usually similarities and a referee does not have vast nuances of ways to treat them.

How consistent are people?

We look at some incidents in the match between the Western Force and the Stormers and in particular what happened to Schalk Burger.

Is the energetic Burger a victim of inconsistency?

Oh. let’s be blunt – is he a marked man?

New Zealanders claim that Richie McCaw is a marked man. South Africans claim that Burger is a marked man. “The refs have ganged up on him and blow him out of the game,” they say of each of those great players.

Is there any truth?

The Western Force played the Stormers in Perth. The Stormers ran out 32-16 winners but en route the referee found them a problem at the tackle. They conceded five free kicks, three penalties and a yellow card at the tackle. Then thefre were two penalties for high tackles.

Let’s look at the high tackle and Burger. We could also look at the tackle area and search for consistency and probably will but let’s stick to the high tackle.

a. In the first half, after 18 minutes, Scott Fava of the Western Force runs, dips slightly and is tackled by Burger. As Fava runs, Fava and Burger, both tall men, are face to face, Burger standing. Burger’s right arm connects with Fava’s upper arm at the joint with the shoulder. The arm slips up and bends at the elbow around Fava’s neck at the back.

The referee sees it and calls Burger over. He also calls Jean de Villiers over and says to him: “One more it’ll be a yellow card for this man.”

High tackle? Certainly.
Malicious? No.
Deserving a talking to? Probably.
Deserving the threat of a sin bin? Doubtfully. Certainly not in comparison with the other six incidents we have.

Matt Giteau of the Western Force goaled the subsequent penalty to make the score 8-7 to the Western Force.

b. In the second half, after 75 minutes, Tamati Horua of the Western Force runs.  Substitute Tony Brown of the Stormers is in his path. Horua is taller and does not dip. Brown moves upwards his forearm going round the neck of Horua. Brown has to move upwards to get it there.

The referee blows his whistle and consults his assistant referee. It is a brief conversation,. The referee confirms that it is “Number 22” and says: “Well go just a penalty.” He then walks over to Brown and says to him: “Just a high tackle. We’ll have a penalty back here.”

He does not call De Villiers or Brown over but walks to Brown. There is no suggestion of a yellow card at all – “just a penalty”.

Why the difference? Similar offence. If anything Brown is more culpable than Burger.

Does time of the match make the difference?
Is it because the assistant referee saw it and the referee perhaps did not? He did not ask for a recommendation or tarry long enough to get an assessment of the nature of the tackle.

It’s hard to work it out.

Is it because Burger is a South African and Brown a New Zealand icon?
Is it because Burger was Player of the Year a while back or because he played in the team that won the World Cup or because he speaks Afrikaans?
Is it because Brown had been in Japan?
Is it because Burger’s father has a wine farm?

That’s facetious but there must be a reason.

Perhaps it is because Burger has a reputation of sorts and referees confirm in conversation and in watching video that he is a man to watch.

It has happened to him before. In Dublin a New Zealand referee sent him to the sin bin for playing the ball with his hand in a tackle when it was clear on replays that the hand had a green armband and was Irish. In Durban this year a New Zealand referee sent him to the sin bin for what seemed like a piffling involvement in a squabble.

There were other high tackles this weekend.

c. There was a worse high tackle in Durban when in the second half Tendai Mtawarira, the Sharks’ prop, went on the charge. He charged straight ahead and James Horwill of the Reds flung a left arm around his neck at the front and Rodney Blake of the Reds flung a right arm around the head area, mostly on Horwill’s arm which was already there.

The referee consulted the touch judge, called the Reds’ captain, Chris Latham, and went to speak to Horwill who was being attended to for an injury. He penalised the Reds, but there was no warning of a yellow card.

Perhaps it is different if the referee consults his assistant in the case of foul play. But there have been cases where the assistant has recommended a yellow card.

d. There is a worse one still in Wellington. After 43 minutes Kieran Read  of the Crusaders runs down the short side and the formidable duo of Chris Masoe and Jerry Collins confront him. Collins’s right arm swings around Read’s neck and drags him to ground. He is hurt.

The referee consults the referee’s assistant, saying: “I didn’t see where it hit. So I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.”

He goes to Collins and So’oialo and says: “A fairly dangerous tackle that ended up high.” He penalises Collins. There is no admonition.

That was a harder tackle than Burger’s. But the referee was unsighted.

e. The referee was not unsighted when Hendrik Meyer of the Cheetahs flung a right arm around the throat of Benn Robinson of the Waratahs. The referee saw this and immediately flung out his arm a-out and announced that he was playing a penalty advantage.

There was no excuse of accidental or slipping up with this one. Robinson was running with the ball and Meyer came in slightly from behind but with the full target of Robinson’s body. The neck was his chosen target. The tackle hurt Robinson.

The referee did not call captain but said to Meyer: “Keep it down, please.”

This happened after 15 minutes.

f. The Highlanders play the Chiefs. Lelia Masaga of the Chiefs has the ball amongst many players and Jimmy Cowan grabs him from behind. He flings his right arm around Masaga’s neck and then his left arm. With both arms he tries to wrench Masaga backwards.

There is no calling of the captain, just an explanation: “Off his head, OK. Leave it alone.”

It was probably the worst high tackle of the weekend.

g. Probably the most harmless happened at the start of the second half between the Bulls and the Blues. The Bulls kick off and the Blues start running. Speedy, elusive Nick Evans has the ball and Akona Ndungane goes into the tackle. Evans is going down when huge Gürthro Steenkamp drops on him somewhere about the neck and head. The touch judge reports the incident and the referee, rightly, penalises Steenkamp. But it does not get or warrant any further action beyond and explanation.

Those were the high tackles in Super 14 this weekend. Eight of them, but only one warranted a warning apparently. Was the referee there the only one in step or was he out of step?

There is one set of laws. There should be one set of application in the same competition with players and referees of the same class.

How the referee acts is largely at his own discretion, and perhaps the referee who dealt with Burger was right when he dealt with Burger.

Law 10.5 SANCTIONS

(a) Any player who infringes any part of the Foul Play law must be admonished, or cautioned and temporarily suspended, or sent-off.

A high tackle is a part of foul play because it is dangerous. It may well have been right to admonish Burger. But what about the rest? Or is “Keep it down, please” really an admonition?

And none of these warranted a citing?