The final candidates
Naturally there is speculation about the appointment of a referee to the World Cup Final – a rare honour for a referee.
So far only four men have refereed a World Cup final – Kerry Fitzgerald of Australia, Derek Bevan of Wales, Ed Morrison of England and Andre Watson of South Africa who did so twice.
The touch judges/TMOs have gone home and just the dozen referees remains. They are Wayne Barnes (England), Stuart Dickinson (Australia), Paul Honiss (New Zealand), Marius Jonker (South Africa), Joel Jutge (France), Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Alan Lewis (Ireland), Nigel Owens (Wales), Alain Rolland (Ireland), Tony Spreadbury (England), Steve Walsh (New Zealand) and Chris White (England).
The men who do the appointments are the selectors. They did them for all the pool matches and then did the appointments for the quarter-finals on Monday. The appointments to the quarter-finals quite possibly give an idea of forward thinking.
The selectors are David Pickering (chairman), Kevin Bowring, Michel Lamoulie of France, Bob Francis of New Zealand, Tappe Henning of South Africa and Steve Hilditch of Ireland
The selectors have eight matches for the 12 referees. The likelihood is that two of the quarter-final referees are those whom they have in mind as possibles for the final. That means they would have to have six referees for the knock-out matches – the four quarter-finals, the two semi-finals, the 3rd/4th play-off and the final.
Refereeing the quarter-finals would keep the possible finalists tuned for the final, but it is unlikely that any of the quarter-final referees would referee a semi-final.
That means that the selectors possibly have the six earmarked referees in three groups of two referees each.
The referees appointed to the quarter-finals are Wayne Barnes, Joel Jutge, Alan Lewis and Alain Rolland. A betting man would suggest that two of those four will go on to do the last two matches – the 3rd/4th play-off and the final.
A betting man would perhaps bet on Jutge and Rolland. Jutge could be eliminated by nationality if France press on through to the last four, but Irish Rolland has no such constraint. If the selectors chose these four Rolland’s Irishness would ensure his availability for either the final or the play-off.
If we follow our speculative train of thought, then the referees ranked as three and four would do the semi-finals. They would come from the eight referees not in the quarters – Dickinson, Honiss, Jonker, Kaplan, Owens, Spreadbury, Walsh and White.
The choice could come down to three – Kaplan, Walsh and White. Much may depend on which teams are playing in the semis.
Betting is that it will be South Africa against Argentina, which would make Walsh eligible and Kaplan therefore eligible for the other semi, regardless which two teams get through the quarters.
Not everybody is going to agree with the choice but the distillation of the best – the best distilled into the very best – will produce the best that rugby football can offer.
Imagine how this would look:
Quarter-final referees: Wayne Barnes, Joel Jutge, Alan Lewis and Alain Rolland
Semi-final referees: Jonathan Kaplan, Steve Walsh
3rd/4th and Final: Joel Jutge and Alain Rolland.
And the others all muck in as touch judges, touch-line monitors and TMOs.
Of course, bets can be lost and speculation can end in embarrassment.
