Benefit at a press conference
Referees get their say
After the Currie Cup match between Western Province and Natal at Newlands on Saturday there was a press conference with a slight difference as the referees were also there.
This was the first of a new initiative this year by the South African referees to make their men more available and transparent. It is to happen in Currie Cup rugby, and at the very first one there was some small benefit for the referees.
Late in the second half of the match Butch James of Natal was sent to the sin bin. He showed his displeasure in a fairly objectionable way, and at the press conference his coach, Dick Muir, expressed the opinion that he had been unfairly treated. This was the only contentious issue in the match refereed by Jonathan Kaplan.
Briefly what happened is as follows: Ruan Pienaar of Natal near his 22 got the ball back from a ruck. He kicked it high down the touchline on his right. Bolla Conradie of Western Province went back to catch the ball but misjudged its flight. The ball bounced in front of him as he ran back. hit its point and bounced high back towards Natal. Gio Aplon of Western Province was waiting for the ball to come down when Butch James of Natal jumped forward for the ball. His leap took him onto the shoulder of the standing Aplon where he fell to the ground. The Natal players came in strongly and Aplon was knocked over. James was then above Aplon and shoved his right hand into his face. There was not an immediate cessation to this close encounter between the two, but play went on way from them and then to the Natal left where AJ Venter 'scored' in the corner.
Meanwhile the touch judge, Linston Manuels, had his flag out and drew Kaplan's attention to an incident.
Kaplan went over and Manuels explained. (Blue is Western Province, Black Natal).
Manuels: "There was a tackle on the Blue player. They were holding each other. No.10 of Black got up and hit him with the fist in the face."
Kaplan: "Your decision."
Manuels: "That will be a yellow."
Kaplan called AJ Venter the Natal captain, and eventually James joined them. James was angry and even angrier when shown a yellow card. It did not take expert lip-reading to discern the nature of his dissent and he marched over at the touch judge passing him at close quarters.
The procedure at the press conference was that first the Western Province coach and captain went in and were there for quite some time. Then the Natal coach and manager answered press questions. Then the referee with his touch judges and the Television Match Official (TMO) sat before the press.
There were questions about the match of a general nature and even a question about yellow cards and soccer referees. There was a question about the early charge at a conversion, but the real issue was the yellow card for James. Muir had said: "The player said he didn't punch. I trust my player."
Kaplan explained what he had seen. He had seen James's leap for the ball and crash to earth. He was satisfied that nothing had gone wrong them. Play had then moved forward towards the Western Province line and he had gone with play, leaving James and Aplon behind. He gave the reasons for this and what had subsequently happened.
The referee then referred the matter to the touch judge.
Manuels said: "I walked up to separate them," he said. "Butch punched him in the face as they got up. That's why I gave Jonathan the call of foul play. I saw it clearly. Why would I flag and give the call if I didn't see it? I was only am metre away looking straight at them."
As a means of giving the match officials a chance to explain what had happened on the field the press conference had succeeded.
