All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen comments on World Rugby and decisions which effect the game, during a press conference on Sunday, after the final test match against France. Video by Brett Phibbs
Patience has finally snapped it would seem. How else to interpret All Blacks coach Steve Hansen's reaction to yet more refereeing controversy over the weekend and how else to make sense of him appearing, or at least hinting that he has nothing but sympathy for Wallabies coach Michael Cheika?
Confusion has reigned supreme this June and some good rugby has been lost in the endless debating and social media trolling about massive ruling discrepancies and conflicting findings by judicial committees.
Right now, international rugby is a shambles in the sense no one – be it players, coaches or fans – knows what they are going to get from one test to the next.
Hansen has obviously reached his threshold in regard to being able to tolerate the madness of it all – fearing that all it will take for stupidity to continue to survive is for test coaches to say nothing.
Maybe the best point Hansen made in the wake of so much negativity, is that what has been lost in the last few years is the certainty of the referee being the sole arbiter of the game.
That is quite definitely no longer true as it fluctuates from test to test and even within the same game it is entirely random as to whether the referee, assistant referee or TMO will have the final say in a decision.
Benjamin Fall of France receives a red card. Photo / Getty
To illustrate this ambiguous fluctuation of authority and responsibility Hansen pointed out that new cap Shannon Frizell had scored what referee John Lacey considered a perfectly good try in the second half of the third test.
He was persuaded to ask TMO George Ayoub to intervene – but only to check there was no compelling reason the try couldn't be awarded.
Ayoub offered nothing, but still recommended the try be disallowed…and it was.
The situation was worse in Australia where the Wallabies played Ireland in a final thrilling encounter to decide the series in Sydney.
Israel Folau was yellow carded for challenging Irishman Peter O'Mahony in the air. Folau, like French fullback Benjamin Fall the week before in Wellington, had only eyes for the ball, was entitled to challenge and while he may have made the lightest contact with the Irishman in the air, the reason O'Mahony crashed to the ground was because his lifter, CJ Stander, dropped him.
And this is the problem. Sometimes TMO's are strong enough to intervene and provide common sense judgements based on what they have seen and at others, they appear to side so quickly and easily with the referee as if they feel compelled to support the original bad decision.
What Hansen is asking for is clarity of roles among the officials and then greater scrutiny on their respective performances.
That's hardly radical but it is a million miles away from happening at the moment and test rugby is in real danger of losing its audience if changes are not made.
Australia's Israel Folau and Ireland's Peter O'Mahony contest a restart. Photo / Photosport
France certainly have a strong case to say they were relentlessly stiffed by the officials throughout June. Australia, too, may have a case and when there is so much outrage – most of it legitimate – about high impact bad refereeing decisions that affect the outcome, no one benefits.
The All Blacks haven't benefited from the growing narrative that they were helped to a 3-0 series victory by refereeing blunders.
Ireland won't be happy either that their historic series win in Australia has been overshadowed.
The truth is that the All Blacks and probably Ireland were going to get the outcomes they got with or without the contentious decisions, but we will never know. Now there is a taint to their respective series victories that is hardly fair on them.
Worse still is the growing lack of trust and integrity in test rugby to be decided by the things that matter. It is starting to feel that hard work, skill, resilience and cohesion don't necessarily win games.
It is the lottery of official rulings that decide outcomes and as Hansen says, World Rugby can't possibly be oblivious to what is going on. They can continue to ignore what is staring them in the face, but shouldn't overlook the fact that Hansen is venting as the coach of a side that won their series 3-0.
Maybe Hansen's fellow coaches won't all agree as to the nature and specifics of what change should look like, but they will all agree there has to be change.
