Referee error: Wallabies want a re-kick
South Africans may have spat the dummy over New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence’s poor performance in last week’s semifinal, but the Australians have also found themselves on the receiving end of a glaring error.
The egregious mistakes by the Kiwi match official, who according to some reports will “never” referee in a World Cup tournament again, came in the Wallabies’ 11-9 quarterfinal win in Wellington last Sunday.
While the Boks and their fans can’t stop bleating about Lawrence’s rulings at the breakdowns, a few forwards passes and a couple of high tackles, the Aussies are just as unhappy about his ruling at a missed conversion attempt.
Wallaby wing James O’Connor is in no doubt that he will ask for a re-kick should an All Black break early in an attempt to charge down one of his conversion attempts in the semifinal in Auckland this coming Sunday.
The Australians have reviewed an incident from their quarterfinal win over the Boks, where South African wing JP Pietersen prematurely charged O’Connor as he prepared to attempt a conversion of James Horwill’s 11th-minute try.
After being told to retreat by referee Bryce Lawrence, Pietersen jogged out of the way, only for O’Connor to subsequently miss the kick.
The incident would no doubt have attracted greater scrutiny if Australia’s two-point winning margin against South Africa had instead been the margin of defeat.
But the Wallabies managed to survive the match 11-9, so they can afford to live and learn from the experience.
The Laws of Rugby state that no player of the team that has conceded a try may cross their own try-line to prevent the conversion attempt until the kicker begins his approach to the ball.
If there is an infringement of this rule and the kick misses, the referee is obliged to allow another conversion attempt.
“I didn’t notice it too much – my focus is clearly on the ball,” O’Connor said.
“But if it happens again, we’ve spoken about it, and I’ll be taking a re-kick,” the 21-year-old Wallaby said.
The difficulty opponents face is that O’Connor’s distinctive pre-kick routine begins with a foot movement that could be easily mistaken as the start of his approach to the ball.
Tellingly, JP Pietersen is not the only opponent at the World Cup to have been fooled.
A similar incident occurred in Australia’s Pool C clash with Russia, when a Bears’ player mistimed his attempted charge down and O’Connor suffered his only missed conversion from his 10 attempts for the match.
In neither match did the Australians approach the referee to request a re-take of the kick but this is now set to change.
“Obviously James [O’Connor] is closer to the action, so he’ll ask. But if that doesn’t work then I’ll ask the question,” captain James Horwill said.
“It is stated in the rules that he is allowed if he wants it.”
Another Bryce Lawrence error!
