Smith apologises to Kaplan
The Rugby Football Union, the governing body of English rugby, has announced that Brian Smith of England’s coaching set-up has apologised for public remarks he made about Jonathan Kaplan’s refereeing of England’s match with Wales in Cardiff last month.
It was the third successive England match in which the side had conceded more penalties and more sin-binnings than their opponents.
Smith is reported as saying: “There’s no doubt Wales played up to Kaplan,. From his whole demeanour through that match and the way he addressed our team in the changing room beforehand, he’d clearly had heaps of pressure put on him by Wales. It was clear to me that Wales had done their job in terms of getting stuck into the referee.”
He went on to say: “We’re just saying to referees: ‘Please judge us the same way you judge other teams and don’t come in with a preconceived idea.”
The Smith statement has clear accusations of bias on Kaplan’s part, even though he is the most experienced Test referee in the history of the game. It was his 49th Test match. Warren Gatland, the Welsh coach denied any Welsh attempt to put pressure on Kaplan. It was easy for the IRB to investigate Kaplan’s demeanour in the changing room as he had his two assistants with him.
The RFU’s statement reads:
‘Brian Smith and Jonathan Kaplan have discussed the recent comments made by the England Attack Coach following the RBS 6 Nations match against Wales.
‘Brian Smith said: “We have spoken since the Wales Test match and I believe it was a positive conversation. I apologised for expressing my views publicly because it would have more productive to have raised those directly with him after the match.
‘”Jonathan is one of the best referees in the world and I’m sure we’ll continue to have a healthy working relationship.”‘
The statement falls short of acknowledging inaccuracy in the content of Smith’s original statement which may well have contained the seeds of a libel charge. It states that he should not have said what he said in public.
Kaplan endured similar public criticism at the hands of Andy Robinson who was the coach when Ireland beat England. The criticism was public, the apology private.
