Rugby: Referees boss to probe Blues' bullying claims

Blues coach Pat Lam said he listened to the officials' calls throughout the game and felt the assistants were controlling the game. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Complaints from the Blues that rookie referee Garratt Williamson was bullied throughout their latest game by his two Australian assistants will be sifted at a timely meeting today.

High-performance referees manager Lyndon Bray will discuss the grievances with the Blues coaching group, who are convinced their 39-32 loss in Sydney was controlled by sideline advice from assistants Paul Marks and James Leckie.

Blues coach Pat Lam was still incensed yesterday at the 12-9 penalty count to the Waratahs, demanding some amends but equally adamant the officials had not cost his side the match.

"I want to make that really clear. That is not the reason why we lost the game but it is highlighting what is happening. This was the performance of the assistant referees with an inexperienced referee and I will leave that with Lyndon," he said.

Lam pointed out that Marks had already been benched from refereeing after the Waratahs' match with the Sharks while Leckie had been dropped by the Australian Rugby Union.

The Blues coach said he listened to the officials' calls throughout the game and felt the assistants were controlling the game.

"Normally it would be white this, blue this, blue this, white this but the whole game, white offside, white hands on, white doing this. Not one call was made against blue," he claimed.

"Probably the disturbing thing was, and this is where the experience comes in, is the fact that every call was listened to bar one. I understand that, because there is a process and he has to trust that, but an experienced referee would have asked 'are there not any calls for blue'?"

Bray had reviewed the match and did not concur with Lam's views. He had not heard the influence claimed to have been exerted by the assistant referees but he would discuss the issue with Williamson.

"All coaches are very committed to winning and I think Pat is very disappointed. He is also very level-headed and we will look at the facts together."

The Blues coach said it was easy to understand his players' frustrations when they saw different rulings for the same offences.

They just wanted consistency and felt the assistants were only watching one team.

"They were. Most of the times that can be subjective but when we have facts and proof that all the calls were white, not one was blue and that was confirmed to me by looking at the game again and listening to the audio," Lam said.

Even mild-mannered captain Keven Mealamu broke into some colourful language during the match because of his frustration.

Lam felt there would have been a better balance to the game if a senior referee such as Bryce Lawrence had been in charge.

On Saturday, experienced South African referee Craig Joubert will control the Blues game against the unbeaten competition leaders, the Bulls, with Josh Noonan and Matt Stanish on the sidelines.

The Blues will be without loosehead prop Tony Woodcock who is struggling with a neck injury though scans have cleared him of any significant problem.