Players not happy it's a matter of Poite luck

ON RUGBY:LAST WEEK the utterly unique individual that is Monsieur Romain Poite, this week Bryce Williams; the Wallabies are certainly experiencing two ends of the refereeing spectrum on successive Saturdays.

Monsieur Poite certainly has his own way of doing things, as Paul O’Connell and frustrated capacity houses at Thomond Park for the Munster-Northampton pool game and the recent Ireland-Barbarians encounter, can readily attest to.

One of the primary purposes of this tour, and of the decision to bring everyone who is still standing (a number that has dwindled) was to expose as many of Ireland’s potential World Cup players as possible to the changed environment of Southern Hemisphere rugby.

The IRB’s desire to alter the contest at the breakdown back toward the team in possession was understandable, for the influence of Heinrich Broussow, David Pocock and Richie McCaw et al had become too pronounced. Coupled with players loitering in front of kickers, the concession of penalties by teams in possession at times in the 2008-09 season made it almost suicidal to counter-attack or attack from deep.

This year, though, the Super 14 almost resembled a different sport as referees applied Paddy O’Brien’s directive with regard to the tackler releasing the ball carrier when he goes to ground, the enforcement of the hindmost-offside line and harsher refereeing of players in front of kickers (ie not advancing until played onside and retreating beyond 10 metres of where the ball landed). Having violently swung away from the defending to attacking team, before becoming a more even contest again, the dice still remains heavily loaded in favour of the team in possession.

By contrast, these directives were lobbed like a grenade into the middle of the Six Nations, albeit the interpretations were most rigidly applied by Southern Hemisphere referees – witness South African Craig Joubert’s controversial yet excellent performance in the Ireland-Wales game at Croke Park.

While the contest became more balanced, these refereeing directives were not applied as liberally across the board in the Northern Hemisphere post-Six Nations – and the Magners League (all the more so whenever a pedantic Scot was in charge) and the French Top 14 remained like a step back in time.

By contrast, teams like Bath in the English Premiership suddenly flourished. Following on from Wayne Barnes taking command of the All Blacks-Ireland game, had Monsieur Poite been in charge this Saturday it would almost have defeated the purpose of exposing these Irish tourists to the changed environment down under.

In fairness, Barnes gave a more than passable imitation of a Southern Hemisphere referee. There was hardly any contest at the breakdown and thus hardly any turnovers, although, ironically, McCaw was clearly slowing down attacking Irish ball by his posts and ought to have been penalised before Jamie Heaslip rashly took exception.

Ireland eventually copped on to this, and discovered even with 14 men they could go through a dozen or more phases on several occasions by dint of keeping the ball in hand. The flip side, however, was Ireland struggled to realign themselves defensively in the face of such rapid-fire ruck ball as the All Blacks were generating.

With Mark Lawrence in charge of the Maoris game, this problem lingered last Friday in Rotorua, but the lessons in coping with what Declan Kidney has referred to as “three-second ruck ball” will be invaluable, even if there will be lingering disquiet at some of Lawrence’s refereeing. For example, the early penalty from which Luke McAlister put the Maoris ahead emanated from Ireland runners being penalised for advancing in front of Geordan Murphy’s long punt downfield, even though they were still 40 or 50 metres away from the ball. It looked pedantic, all the more so when a much more blatant example of the same offence by the Maoris in the second half was overlooked.

All of this, of course, probably suited England more than the Wallabies, and good luck to the red rose brigade and the embattled Martin Johnson for their morale-boosting victory over Australia, even if some of the English media will probably claim some of the credit for having campaigned on behalf of the Ben Youngs (a true English diamond of the present as well as the future), Ben Foden, Chris Ashton and Courtney Lawes.

However, all that aside, there was little or no evidence of “three second ruck ball” in that game. The breakdown reverted to a classically laissez-faire French warzone, with bodies piling up on top of bodies. Furthermore, Poite and his assistants failed to apply the hindmost-offside law as rigidly as would have been the case had a Southern Hemisphere referee been in charge.

The nagging suspicion also remains that not alone will Australia be hurting more after that loss to England (and their attitude would be “anybody but England”), but also that Ireland might have been better off had Mark rather than Bryce Lawrence been in charge at the Suncorp Stadium this Saturday.

The latter was harsh on the Lions in the second Test last summer and, it seemed, equally harsh on the French when they lost to South Africa last Saturday week. Most likely, the French and Irish were disadvantaged by the refereeing they’d become accustomed to in Europe in recent months, whereas England had the shorter-term benefit of having Poite and a week before, Nigel Owens, in charge of their two Tests in Australia. Granted, they go home with the boost of a win on Southern Hemisphere soil.

Ultimately, though, the last couple of weekends have reinforced a somewhat curious feeling in advance of next season. That is, for Northern Hemisphere teams not to be similarly disadvantaged come the 2011 World Cup 15 months down the line, the most important people in ensuring this is so are arguably not the coaches or the players, but the referees. We know Owen Doyle and the Irish referees, and the English referees too, will adapt to the changed directives. But can we be so sure of, say, the Scots and the French?  gthornley@irishtimes.com