No surprises as Henry praises Jouba
South African referee Craig Joubert received lavish praise from All Blacks coach Graham Henry for the strict manner in which he controlled the game between New Zealand and Australia at the weekend.
The All Blacks thrashed the Wallabies 49-28 – their eighth straight Bledisloe Cup/Tri-Nations win over their trans-Tasman rivals.
Joubert’s hard-line refereeing resulted in three yellow cards (two to the hosts and one to New Zealand) and left Australia reeling with 14 men in the second half of the match in Melbourne.
Joubert yellow-carded All Black prop Owen Franks in the 21st minute for a shoulder charge on Wallaby No.8 Richard Brown.
Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell, his team’s first try-scorer, was then red-carded in the 43rd minute by Joubert after being issued with a second yellow card.
The Australian had earlier been sin-binned – in the 28th minute – for a dangerous tackle on New Zealand captain Richie McCaw and was shown a red card in the third minute of the second half when he prevented Conrad Smith from taking a quick throw when the All Blacks were on attack.
Whilst Australian Rugby Union CEO John O’Neill was unhappy about what he felt was harsh treatment for a seemingly innocuous tackle in the first half and then another incident soon after the break, for silly play, Henry felt Joubert was spot on.
“I think it’s good they’re strict,” Henry told reporters on Sunday.
“Okay, there might be some debate about some of the decisions, there’s always going to be some debate about the decisions.
“What you don’t want is referees being soft and therefore you get a game that doesn’t flow and there’s a lot of illegal stuff happening at the tackle.
“If he’s grey at the tackle area or he’s grey on people throwing the ball away when the other side wants it, you’ve got a shambles on your hands.
“So I think it’s good that he’s strict and he sticks to what he says he’s going to do.”
Henry’s lavish praise of Joubert, the first southern hemisphere referee to appear in this year’s Tri-Nations series, came after a trio of Irish whistlemen outraged South Africa with their inconsistent handling of matches in the first three rounds.
Irish referees Alan Lewis (Auckland), Alain Rolland (Wellington) and George Clancy (Brisbane) have handled the Springboks’ matches in this year’s tournament.
Joubert was the first southern hemisphere match official to be called upon to take charge of a Tri-Nations fixture this season, that after 17 referees from SA, NZ and Australia had been used in 99 matches in the 2010 Super 14 tournament.
More northern hemisphere referees will be in charge when the Boks face the All Blacks and Wallabies on home soil later this month – with Nigel Owens (Soweto), Rolland (Pretoria) and Wayne Barnes (Bloemfontein) appointed for those matches.
