Hockey: Umpiring decision continues to puzzle

New Zealand men's hockey coach Kevin Towns labelled Monday night's controversial umpiring decision by Briton Gill Clarke in Sydney as "unfair" and "inconsistent".

The New Zealand women's team, leading 2-1 over Spain, saw a win disappear after Clarke called New Zealand for time wasting and reversed a 16m free hit in favour of Spain with 20 seconds left on the clock.

Spain quickly took the free hit and, with the New Zealand defence caught on the hop, forward Nuria Camon slipped the ball past goalkeeper Helen Clarke.

Apart from denying New Zealand what should have been a deserved victory, Clarke also sinbinned Rachel Petrie and disallowed a goal to Mandy Smith in the first half of the game.

New Zealand coach Jan Borren was angry immediately afterwards.

``It's absolutely disgusting umpiring in all respects,'' he told reporters in Sydney yesterday.

Speaking on National Radio this morning, Borren said despite the result New Zealand still had a chance to make the gold medal or bronze medal play-offs if results of other matches went their way.

The team was now focusing on their final play-off match against Argentina which they needed to win.

He said while the umpiring had affected the outcome of last night's match, New Zealand also had to look at having their defence organised for such quickly taken free hits.

With Argentina also needing to win, he anticipated a tense match tomorrow.

Spanish coach Marcus Lammers was predictably non-commital on the umpiring. He even felt his team had received the worst of the decisions.

``I didn't think the umpires were for us, I thought they were more against us. Many decisions in the second half could have gone for us or for them but they were always for them,'' said Lammers, who said he didn't see the lead up to the final goal.

``I was with one of my players on the bench and she was crying. I can imagine he (Borren) is not so happy with what happened.

``In the Olympic Games nothing is for free, you fight for every point. Today we were happy to take one in the last minute.''

Towns, who took the men's team to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and regained the coach's position this year with his son Simon as captain, was disappointed with the last-minute decision.

``You have to feel shattered for the girls, I was over there in the first week and I know how much effort and work went into their campaign,'' Towns said.

``It was a really unfortunate decision, but what I found really disappointing was the inconsistency in making that decision."

He said when the Spanish team was restarting play from the sideline they took far longer than the delay New Zealand was penalised for.

The ruling was contrary to the way the umpires had ruled in the game up until then.

Towns said he had no problems accepting the disallowed goal but was puzzled at Petrie's sinbinning.

Towns agreed with Australian coach Ric Charlesworth's assertion that umpiring at the Games had been sub-standard.

``When you look at that tournament, our women have been on the wrong end of some very harsh calls, such as that goal that should have stood in the game against South Africa.''

However, he believed the New Zealand women were mentally strong enough to overcome the setback and beat Argentina.

``They've faced a lot of adversity and tough times in getting there, they have the mental faculties to overcome it, and I've no doubt they will,'' he said.

- NZPA