The overriding feeling that I had while watching it was sadness. Sadness for the wee tackers who play rugby and are encouraged to strive to get to the upper echelons of the sport.
What is the point if a bunch of blokes sitting in front of computer screens suck the sportsmanship out of the game? Why even bother having a referee on the ground at all?
I never thought I’d see the day when I felt sorry for Wayne Barnes, but the poor guy couldn’t even do his job. I’d rather have a ref make some dodgy calls by himself that we can moan about. It feels more fair.
Since the game, Barnes has received death threats online, his wife has been abused and his kids threatened. I’m pretty sure she didn’t sign up for that when she married him. Good old keyboard warriors strike again.
At what point do we say, it’s just a game?
The other question that I have is who umpires the umpires? Can someone video their performance and penalise them for doing a terrible job with no consistency?
It just felt like they were making calls for the sake of it and simply confusing the heck out of everyone who was watching - and playing - the game. I watched the game on my own so I could digest it all myself.
It’s not quite the same when you have nobody to share your frustrations with, but I wanted to process my emotions and the incredulity I felt. Would I feel like this if we had won? It’s hard to say.
What I can say is that it certainly feels better to win. I’d like to say that rugby was the winner on the day but that is blatantly untrue. The TMO was. Rant over.
Editor’s note: On Thursday Barnes announced his retirement from refereeing.
