Dickinson in Cape Town
Perceptions persist
Stuart Dickinson, Australia's experienced referee, is back in South Africa. He is there to referee the match between South Africa and France at Newlands. It may just be possible that antagonism towards him is on the wane – just possible.
There are odd, mostly inexplicable perceptions that such and such referee has got it in for us. The Waratahs have bad feelings about Jonathan Kaplan, the English about Steve Walsh and South Africans about Stuart Dickinson. Those perceptions, normally, are contained and confined more to distant fans than the people – players and coaches – who come into closest contacts.
Even there Piet van Zyls are mercifully few though he will go down in rugby history as the man who assaulted Dave McHugh during a Test. There is the occasional outburst against a referee who should have better control – like Clive Woodward about André Watson, Ewan McKenzie about Jonathan Kaplan and, it seems, Scottish coaches in recent times.
Dickinson, a thoroughly respectable, likeable and honest man is at a loss to understand South African antipathy towards him. He first came to South Africa in 1993. Then he was a policeman and on an exchange between Sydney referees and Free State referees. He has been back man, many, many times since. He likes South Africa, he likes South Africans and he has made good friends in SA.
Why the perception that he is anti-South African?
He says: "I honestly don't know. I've tried to understand it. It may be because South Africans are so passionate about the game, and with passion objectivity goes out the window.
"There was a time when South African teams were travelling and losing. People looked for somebody to blame, and the referee was the easiest target.
"As you go up the refereeing ladder, you tend to get the high-profile teams. They are involved in tougher games. Then if you are a decision-maker you are more likely to be open to criticism. There are bound to be times when people do not like the decision.
"But your integrity is on the line. You can't make decisions just because it will please or not displease the home crowd. Luckily on the field you are completely unaware of the crowd because of the level of concentration. There is just a Green team and a Blue team – nothing else."
But there will also be a time after the match for reflection. Dickinson is experienced enough to review his own performance, and in the South African context he has done that as well.
"I go over my own performance after a match – look down the hall of mirrors and learn. You have to learn and grew, which is true of all things we do. I have learnt to change my philosophical approach to the game a bit, see a bit more grey and not just black and white. In my notes for pre-match preparation and post-match reflection I am now more structure, better formalised, and it seems to be paying off in my refereeing. I'm still there, which means I must be getting some things right."
Dickinson, who started refereeing as a 12-year-old at Epping Boys' High in Sydney, is on the IRB's panel of 21 referees, the top men in the world, and has now refereed 33 Tests in all parts of the world. He is experienced, all right. He must have been getting things right whatever a part of the public may believe. Five of those Tests involved South Africa, three of which they won. One of those is the Test Dickinson regards as his most memorable ever.
His first Test was in 1998 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in searing heat. Papua New Guinea beat Tahiti 92-6. Then he refereed Argentina vs Canada and Hong Kong vs Korea. Then came his first big one – Wales vs South Africa at Wembley Stadium when South Africa were on their 17-match winning streak – and they won this one.
South Africans saw him mostly as a Super rugby Referee in matches between New Zealand teams and South African teams at a time when South African teams were travelling and losing, which did not endear the referee to them. There was silence this year when he refereed the match in Hamilton between the Chiefs and the Cheetahs when he penalised the Cheetahs only once in the entire match.
Dickinson came to Cape Town this week with his officiating team – touch judges Tony Spreadbury and Rob Debney of England, television match official Geoff Warren of England and assessor Jim Bailey of Wales. They had a good week which included a visit to Du Toit's Kloof Wynkelders where one of the people remarked to Ben Theron, the secretary of the Western Province Society that he was surprised that Dickinson was such a nice guy. The devil it seems did not have horns after all and may in fact not have been a devil at all!
Dickinson says: "I've had wonderful visits over the years. We meet wonderful people who invite us to braais and things and we see wonderful places."
Travelling, of course, is a tough part of life. At one stage he left home and refereed in Perth, Johannesburg, London, Edinburgh Belfast and Dublin before going home in time to bounce on to Dunedin.
"We're away quite a lot but the compensation is that when I get home I am completely at home and can fit in things like training around what the family is doing."
The family is wife Fiona, son Michael, who is nearly five, and twins Emily and Isabella, who will be three in August.
Stuart James Dickinson was born in Sydney on 19 July 1968. Started refereeing at 12? Yes. The school had a programme to develop schoolboy referees. During his school career he would play for the school on Wednesdays and referee on Saturdays. After school be played for the Eastwood club and referees and then in 1988 he gave up playing and joined what was then the Sydney Referees' Association, Now the New South Wales Referees' Society.
The policeman became a businessman and is now a full-time referee, one of the top in the world.
He worked at his game. He is fit, looks after his health and leads a disciplined life. Training methods have developed more scientifically and he is coached by Mick Keogh, the national coach of Australian referees.
He knows the need for the honesty and self-evaluation and self-coaching need to make the jump to the top and to keep on striving to be the best. And he enjoys it. "It's still a challenge, and the day I lose the respect of the players, I'll stop."
Bonza bloke, as Sydneysiders would say.
