New ref row after another Kiwi cheap shot
UNDER-20 SPOTLIGHT: The perception that match official favour New Zealand teams and handle them with kid gloves is not going away.
In fact, the World Rugby Under-20 championship produced several examples – the most recent and some would say most shocking was the decision by England referee Christophe Ridley in Wales’ famous 8-7 win over New Zealand on Monday.
It follows just days after the puzzling decision by Australian referee Damon Murphy in South Africa’s win over New Zealand.
In Ridley’s riddled world on Monday he found that the New Zealand player ‘brushed the shoulder’ of his opponent before, connecting with his head.
Apparently, that is now a mitigating factor.
It caused a similar outcry to the game against – a tackle that was deemed a red, or at least a yellow card, but was only judged to be a penalty by the referee, as the Kiwi’s ‘black jersey obscured the view’ in the contact area.
These ludicrous explanations continue to add to the perception that New Zealand is still being given preferential treatment by match officials.
Below is the social media fallout over Monday’s incident and further down is the incident against South Africa. Seeing a trend?
Let us know your thoughts!
Just another example of how World Rugby has arrived at rulings that are too complicated with too many interpretations https://t.co/BTN7iw456F
— Dan Retief (@Retief_Dan) June 18, 2019
Absolutely SHOCKING… Please explain what message you send & if this is your message as safe… Where’s your bloody consistancy?
START EXPLAINING? @WorldRugby @rugbyworldcup @4KobusWiese @ShaneWilliams11 @BrianODriscoll @ThysLombard pic.twitter.com/6Zmf29hRgP— Niel Germishuys (@NielGermishuys) June 17, 2019
