Rugby: Touch judge banished to video after botched call

Highlanders forward Adam Thompson may have been robbed of a fair try.

Josh Noonan has been removed from sideline Super 14 duties at Carisbrook tonight after his botched call in the opening round involving the Highlanders.

The assistant referee is the first casualty of Sanzar's decisions to toughen up their on-field rulings and to rate their officials in this year's competition.

Noonan ran touch last week and ruled a kick had gone out when two Crusaders muffed the catch and Highlanders loose forward Adam Thompson regathered to cross for what should have been a try.

"We weighed up two things," high performance referees manager Lyndon Bray revealed.

"The impact of the error was quite big, it put referee Chris Pollock under pressure and it also had an emotive value with the Highlanders if we had left Josh on the sideline again with them for this round."

Noonan was down to run touch tonight at Carisbrook - as the Highlanders and Blues both battle to avoid twin defeats to start this year's Super series - but instead he has been given video replay duties.

A refereeing group of Bray, Colin Hawke, Andrew Cole, Greg Cooper and Tappe Henning reviewed the opening round of matches and decided to give Noonan a rest.

"The change is relevant given the fixture this round," Bray said. "Josh put his hand up and we thought it prudent to make the change but he is listed to work again on touch in round four.

"It was a blunder, it was not an easy ruling and he made three or four other good calls outside that. But we had to weigh up the impact and one of our values is accountability.

"We have spoken to all the referees about the scrum sequences and we want to see that sharper this week. Just as the players are serious about their results we are serious about changing some of their behaviour."

Bryce Lawrence is the referee tonight at Carisbrook as the Blues look to avoid successive opening defeats since 2006.

In their only change, the Blues have reclaimed fullback Paul Williams after concussion stopped him starting last week while the Highlanders have had to replace injured five-eighths Matt Berquist and No 8 Nasi Manu. Last year's Blues utility Michael Hobbs will direct the Highlanders backline after scoring all his side's 17 points last week when he came on to replace the injured Berquist.

It was Hobbs' first match since April last year after he suffered several stress fractures in his back. In his time out from rugby, Hobbs completed his commerce degree and then passed a medical to be picked for the Highlanders.

His new side needed to start much faster than they had last week.

"The talent the Blues have in their squad is unbelievable. There is an abundance of players of talent in most positions and they can really put on a show when everything clicks for them," he warned.

The Highlanders leave for a three-game South African segment this weekend and the Blues next have an away game against the Reds.