Kelvin Deaker at the Rugby World Cup: Masterful Joubert the right man for the final

Referee Craig Joubert. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

The right referee has been appointed to the Rugby World Cup final.

Craig Joubert's handling of the All Blacks' semifinal against Australia was a great example of players determining the result, not the officials.

It's probably easy to say that from a New Zealand perspective because we won, but I haven't heard much complaint from the Australian camp, just an acknowledgment that the better side won and that's normally a good sign.

In light of what happened to Alain Rolland a night earlier, it was the sensible decision.

Joubert was strong on Sunday. He got stuck into David Pocock and Richie McCaw a couple of times early on, they all seemed to find a respect for each other and the game developed from there.

The beauty of that game was that, even though New Zealand missed untold shots at goal, it was the players who ultimately decided the outcome. It wasn't a referee's decision. That's what you're always after as a ref. The last thing you want is one of your decisions to be the decisive factor, as it was on Saturday night.

Rolland would have taken no pleasure from that fact, but he seems to have paid the ultimate price and missed the opportunity to referee the final.

The edict from the IRB was there and the player, Sam Warburton, would have known that you don't lift people.

I don't care about his defence that Vincent Clerc was light. What say he did come down and break his neck? It's only six inches between a safe landing and a tragedy.

People are saying "put him on report and judge him later" or "send him off and substitute him" but if he had maimed that guy, would we be saying the same thing? I don't think so.

It's a really difficult balance. It did ruin the game, but the referee has a duty of care for player safety and you can't have players tipping each other over.

Everyone's blaming Rolland but he was doing only as the IRB instructed. Everyone has known that if you take the player up there, it's up to you to bring him down safely. If you don't, you are liable to leave the field.

Where it gets tricky, and where I have some sympathy for the Welsh, is that we've seen these tackles less harshly penalised earlier in the tournament. It's a shame it took until a World Cup semifinal before we saw red for a tip tackle.

That's an inconsistency I can't explain but that does not mean Rolland was wrong.

Kelvin Deaker is a former international referee.