IRB role ends with final thrill

Bob Francis picked the perfect time to end six years as a member of the International Rugby Board's referees selection panel.

Sunday's World Cup final between the All Blacks and France was the former Masterton mayor's swansong in the role and he was delighted to be at Eden Park to see the All Blacks end their 24-year losing drought.

"It was a great occasion and a great game of rugby; just what you wanted from a final," he said. "And, of course, any Kiwi had to be pleased with the result. That was the icing on the cake."

Francis was also "more than happy" with the job done by the match officials, especially the man in the middle, South African Craig Joubert, who had earned the appointment through a series of excellent refereeing performances in earlier tournament games, including the ABs' semifinal with Australia.

"He's a pretty cool customer. He handles pressure very well," Francis said of Joubert.

"He treated it like any other game and that's exactly what he had to do."

For Francis and the other three members of the referees selection panel the World Cup was a hectic six to seven weeks. Each of them watched 10 of the pool games live and they were also in attendance at the playoff matches, their eyes firmly fixed on the men either carrying the whistle or running the lines.

And he had only praise for the manner in which referees under scrutiny went about their business, labelling the standard of officiating as above expectations.

"The focus on the referee in this sort of environment is unbelievable.

"Any little mistake is picked on," he said.

"And, unfortunately, you do get some of the teams who head home early using the referees as an excuse for their own failures just to take the pressure off themselves. That's just the way it goes."

Francis is adamant the sending off of Welsh skipper Sam Warburton by referee Alain Rolland midway through the first half of his team's semifinal with France for a dangerous tip tackle was "totally supported"by panel members.

"The rules say it is a sending-off offence and he [Rolland] had every reason to do what he did."

Francis is convinced, however, that some areas of the game will go under the microscope in post-World Cup discussions, notably the scrums, where collapses were too often occurring, and in the use of the television match official.

He said questions needed to be asked whether the engagement process at scrum time was too slow while there was growing support for the television match official being allowed to express an opinion on such matters as foul play.