Rugby: 'Hometown' refs will stay

Steve Walsh copped criticism. Photo / Getty Images

Sanzar's commitment to appoint referees on merit remains unaffected by recent 'hometown' shockers.

While it might make some New Zealanders uncomfortable and revive bad memories, there is a good chance South African officials will be involved in the semifinals even if both are played in the Republic.

Speculation is already high Stu Dickinson of Australia and Mark Lawrence of South Africa will do the semifinals, with Craig Joubert doing the final.

The appointment of the match officials for the finals has taken on greater significance since South Africa's Marius Jonker's performance in the Bulls versus Crusaders game was riddled with errors that hurt the Crusaders.

His performance has been reviewed and a number of concerns came to light, says New Zealand Rugby Union and Sanzar high performance referee coach Colin Hawke.

"There were some performance issues that are being addressed," says Hawke. "There were issues with the handling of the scrum and maul turnovers.

"I think it would have been very hard to get the forward pass in real time [such as the last one of the game that led to the match-winning try] but in saying that, he wasn't in a great position. My personal opinion is that it was a forward pass.

"But we have no plans to go to neutral refs. There will always be the odd performance that creates some angst, particularly at this stage of the competition when the coaches are really feeling the heat, but the system has been pretty well received."

The decision to use three referees with one held back for the final means any controversy in the semifinals can be contained there, as neither official will then have to take charge of the same team the following week.

Arguably, that's been the big plus of the merit-based system - teams who are materially affected by a bad refereeing performance have not had to endure the same official the next week.

That was the case as early as round two, when Josh Noonan was dumped as touch judge for the Highlanders versus Blues game after he wrongly ruled against the southern men in the opening round to deny them a legitimate try.

Steve Walsh was stood down in round 12 as there was no way he could take charge of the Brumbies again after a poor performance in round 11 that enraged the men from Canberra.

Walsh, who now lives in Sydney, clashed with Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles throughout the game which the Waratahs won 19-13.

Walsh had originally been scheduled to referee the Brumbies' next game, against the Reds, but was stood down.

Following in that vein, it's unlikely Jonker will feature in the playoffs, given his performance in Pretoria.

The Crusaders would not welcome his presence in the semifinals given he hammered them in the scrums, made an obvious mistake in awarding the Bulls the put-in after they had been held off the ground in the preceding tackle and then failed to see the forward pass that led to Francois Hougaard's 85th minute try.

South Africa's Jonathan Kaplan and New Zealanders Bryce Lawrence and Chris Pollock are also believed to be in the frame to take charge of the upcoming critical playoff games.