Cut the chat, coach pleads with officials

Clive Woodward

Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward had a second innings on the work of the touch judges yesterday.

He had played a few big shots to the boundary when he brought the topic up after the Taranaki match in New Plymouth last week, claiming touch judges Steve Walsh and Paul Honiss had too much to say in referee Kelvin Deaker's ear that night.

And yesterday he was on the front foot again, wondering why the touch judges in the New Zealand Maori win over the Lions - this time Honiss and Deaker - talked so much to referee Walsh.

"It just seems strange if the referee is stood next to something why the touch judge is making a call when he's obviously a lot further away," Woodward said.

He has been told New Zealand officials prefer to work in a team of three, rather than one calling the bulk of the shots.

He doesn't like it - preferring touch judges to watch for foul play behind the ball and put their stick up when the ball goes out - but Woodward yesterday said the Lions would look to get onside with officials rather than fighting the point.

"The referee should go to a touch judge if he wants advice, as opposed to having someone constantly talking to him.

"All I can do is make the point. We've got to work with what they're doing. If they're not going to change we still have to play the fixtures," he said.

Woodward had no gripe with the sin-binning of prop Andrew Sheridan for throwing a punch.

Sheridan thought he had been deliberately hit in the head. Woodward said it was accidental, but his player hadn't realised that and reacted.

"He was wrong to react. The referee and touch judge got that one right."