'Barnes not only culprit'

MAN IN THE MIDDLE: Bob Francis refereed 10 matches when the Ranfurly Shield was at stake. He is pictured alongside the famed "log of wood" in 2009.PHOTO/FILE

BOB FRANCIS says English referee Wayne Barnes should not have borne the full brunt of the criticism after the All Blacks lost their 2007 Rugby World quarter-final match with France in Cardiff.

Francis was one of those responsible for assessing, and selecting, referees for matches at that tournament and makes it clear in the book, Bob Francis, A Story of My Town, to be launched in Masterton on Sunday that while Barnes had to take some of the stick for missing the forward pass which led to a vital French try his two assistant referees, Jonathan Kaplan and Tony Spreadbury, were not entirely blameless either.

What shouldn't be overlooked, Francis says, is the lack of support Barnes received from Kaplan and Spreadbury. Kaplan was in the best position to judge whether the pass was forward, while Spreadbury had adopted a "low key approach" throughout the game.

"These two guys were top referees in their own right but when you look back on what happened that day you have to say they did not give the referee the level of support required. If they had been on the job, then a lot of the controversy might well have been avoided."

Francis was not impressed by the response to the loss from All Blacks coach Graham Henry who Francis believes should have been looking at himself rather than switch the blame to perceived refereeing hassles.

"The All Blacks had played poorly that day. There had been some refereeing decisions which were questionable but if you go back through the whole lead-up from 12 months out from that World Cup there were a lot of mistakes made in the way they were conditioned and prepared. The chickens came home to roost that day."

The elimination of the All Blacks in that quarter-final might have created a sense of doom and gloom in New Zealand but Francis recalls how delighted the British rugby public were at their demise.

"Everywhere you went you'd have people taunting you about how the All Blacks had been beaten and how pleased they were about it. There is a greater degree of envy about the All Blacks in the UK, and especially England and Ireland, than there is anywhere else in the world. There is a large sector there that seems to live for the day when we get beaten, and it doesn't really matter who by. And if it's a World Cup, well they can really go to town then."

The high regard in which Francis was - and still is - held in the rugby refereeing community is highlighted in a piece which looks at the dumping of Steve Walsh from the international panel because of behavioural problems. Walsh talks about Francis as being a man who had faith in him, both as a referee and a person and recalls one of his earlier professional appointments when Francis was his assessor.

"I thought I'd gone pretty well myself but when Bob came into the changing room he was quiet, he hardly said a word. He listened to what I had to say and then left. A couple of days later I get this phone call from him and he really bollocks me, tells me that if I keep refereeing like that I'll never get anywhere. He spared me nothing, it was probably the harshest criticism I have ever had."

Francis was an outstanding referee. His career included controlling 10 tests in far-off places like the UK and Argentina, a record 10 Ranfurly Shield games and 91 first-class games, yet he says he got as much enjoyment out of refereeing club rugby as he did provincial matches or even internationals.

"Those were the days when the very top players in the game still played regularly at club level, so the environment was a lot different than it is now. You could have guys playing test matches one weekend and club games the next. Imagine that happening in 2015."

Francis remembers the keen rivalry existing between the Masterton and Red Star clubs, both of them based in Masterton.

"I wouldn't exactly say there was a hatred between the two clubs but they certainly did hate losing to each other. And their supporters were always so passionate, it was like war to them."

Francis says it was hard to believe, when you considered their intense rivalry back then, that the clubs were now amalgamated into one club, Masterton Red Star.

"Hell's bells, if you had suggested that when I was refereeing you probably would have been shot!"