Watson: ‘Joubert’s no cheat’
31 May 2010
André Watson says he is disappointed by the remarks made about Craig Joubert after the Super 14 final and backs the referee’s performance with statistics.
The Bulls beat the Stormers 25-17 in Soweto on Saturday and lifted their third Super Rugby title. However, in the aftermath, there wasn’t much attention given to what the Bulls did right to secure their second successive championship or where the Stormers faulted. Most of the focus was on Joubert’s handling of the game.
Many pundits felt Joubert was one-sided in the final, which gave the Bulls an unfair advantage. Even Stormers captain Schalk Burger criticised Joubert saying: ‘I was unhappy with his decisions at the breakdown. I wouldn’t come out and say so unless I felt something was wrong. He’d coach one team at the breakdown and then penalise the other.’
However, Saru manager of referees André Watson believes Joubert had a good game.
‘I felt that Craig did very well. There were some mistakes made, but that’s normal. Everybody on the field will commit errors, from the players to the referees,’ Watson told keo.co.za.
‘People are calling Craig a cheat. They are saying there were two sets of law interpretations applied and that Craig backed the Bulls. That’s not the case at all. If rugby people are blaming the referee, then it’s a sad day for rugby.
‘There were 167 tackles/rucks in the final. The Stormers made 85 and the Bulls 82. The Stormers were penalised six times at the tackle point and the Bulls seven times. The Stormers were also spoken to on 25 occasions and the Bulls 28 occassions, so there was no case of one team getting coached and the other penalised. Craig also never repeated himself after warning a player, so no one got second chances.
‘No one is focusing on the missed tackles, the poor kicks or what the Bulls did right. I’m disappointed by the articles published and what people are saying. It was a great occasion at Orlando Stadium and this was not needed.’
Many pundits have also questioned Joubert’s selection ahead of Jonathan Kaplan (the world’s most capped Test referee and widely acknowledged to be the best in the world) for the final. Watson said everybody was happy with Joubert’s selection.
‘Craig’s appointment was made by Sanzar. He was the best referee in the Super 14. Most of the teams rated him highly. Both the Bulls and the Stormers were also happy with him being in charge.’
Watson added that Joubert’s performance will be reviewed.
‘After every match, we go through the referee’s performance with him. There are on average 625 incidents in a game and we go through all of them with the respective official. After that, we discuss if the decision was right or wrong and this helps with the referee’s development.’
By Gareth Duncan
218 Comments
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31 May 2010, 13:58 pm
@XhosaKid(XhosaKid)-198: True , I thought there was a clear penalty right in front of the poles when Kirchner played the ball on the ground in teh first half. Thats a 3 pointer and the score would have read 9-6 , But like I’ve said it means little as I also believe the bulls would have bounced back , the diffs was for me the halfbacks firstly and the fact that the bulls played the ref better.
31 May 2010, 14:07 pm
Fact is, the Stormers strategists slipped on a banana peel here. They looked at all the videos of Craig’s earlier games, especially versus the Blues and Reds, and planned their assault on that.
In the meantime Craig, unbeknown to everyone, probably reviewed his performances as well in preparation for the occassion and tweaked his approach a bit as one would expect of every good ref (recognizing his prior errors and trying to rectify them in future games).
Result? Stormers in the dwang! Serves them right for prefering to play the refs historic calls rather than to the rule book.
And now that they’ve been caught out they want to cry! Ag shame, cry me a river! Why not rather learn from this, but no, instead you prefer to whinge. Guess what, next time you’ll make the same mistakes unless you reign in your hurt little egos.
31 May 2010, 14:21 pm
@Nick Armstrong(Nick Armstrong)-59:
Stegmann wasn’t the tackler on that occasion, he stole the ball fair and square…
Get your facts straight!
31 May 2010, 14:25 pm
@Provvas(Provvas)-193:
You moron, Stegmann wasn’t part of the tackle! Is steal was fair and square.
Just as I’ve said to Armstrong. Stop b*tching and go and see what it is that you’re complaining about.
31 May 2010, 14:34 pm
@Nick Armstrong(Nick Armstrong)-59:
@Provvas(Provvas)-193:
Pardon me gents, I was thinking about another steal. He stole so many balls you can forgive for not remembering which one exactly.
But in all fairness, he DID release…that’s why I said marginal. We know about “DAYLIGHT” but Bekker on Spies was more blatant and didn’t even release and he won the penalty.
Go look at it again in slo-mo. Stegmann DID release at least, and if yoy see it again, Matfield attempts a clean and goes over the top. Perhaps we could argue that this prevents Stegmann from standing up completely if that’s what you would like to see.
31 May 2010, 14:38 pm
Well I remeber Bulls screaming like ******* when Joubert nailed Stegman against Blues……But that was not sour grapes or Whingeng because the bulls including Naas are allowed to contest the the refs calls when its the Bulls taking it up the tailpipe…..you most the best ever which makes all the supporters the best rugby knowing public……
31 May 2010, 14:45 pm
@catleya(catleya)-201: A good perspective
31 May 2010, 14:47 pm
@sparticus(sparticus)-200: Yes, 100% agreed, the halfbacks were the diffrence, the Bulls guys are miles ahead.
31 May 2010, 14:48 pm
@Hoops(Hoops)-205:
Yes, but the difference was that the Bulls players and management NEVER COMPLAINED.
In fact if you followed the news, you’ll read that CJ also admitted in the postmortem session to getting his calls RE Stegmann wrong. And so it was said that Stegmann can be seen to have been “unlucky”.
NOW, enter SULK and Allister! Holy Heck! A constant stream of b*tching!
Have you spotted the difference?
BTW, remember Keo writing an article about how pathetic saffas are concening the refs???
So now what Hoops?
31 May 2010, 15:00 pm
Ag you know, all this is pathetic. How will it help? Do we have any friends? Will the selectors pay attention?
I cannot believe the way some selections have gone.
If some of the best rugby minds in country were in charge (Heyneke, Matfield, Du Preez, Staal etc
),
Stegmann would be one of the first names on the list. His workrate is priceless, doing lateral, hard supportive play unlike anything in South Africa, and freeing up Pierre Spies to play more freely and mount direct assualts on defensive line in decimating fasion that we’ve become accustomed to…
not to mention his legendary scrumhalf, Fourie du Preez- who has also built his reputation partly aroung the S14…and guess what? Behind a Stegmann.
If I were coach, these would be up first:
BJ Botha
Fourie du Preez
M Steyn
Matfield
Jacuqe Fourie
F Steyn
Forheavenssakes, save our rugby.
31 May 2010, 17:32 pm
First off well played Bulls. Congrats on your 3rd Super 14 title.
The point is not to question the calls Joubert made, what is being questioned is the calls he didn’t make. I felt the Bulls slowed down almost every ball.
Now while this was changed during the S14 and it’s a pity to go back to the old way in the final, the Stormers could and should’ve seen what was going on and try to do the same.
31 May 2010, 18:48 pm
“Joubert is not a cheat”. Now that is a classic example of a “straw man” argument. No-one said that Craig is a cheat. We merely said that he’s spineless and incompetent.
31 May 2010, 22:19 pm
What makes me feel a bit better about this is that Joubert will know he had a shocker.
He strikes me as a ref who tries to learn from his mistakes – improve on what he got wrong.
Watson, in his eagerness to defend his man, is clutching at statistics. What matters in a tight game, as finals inevitable are, are the small decisions, the loss of momentum by a side, the incorrect handling of a penalty to the wrong side, the incorrect awarding of a scrum. Not 50 times, but mor elike five. On these are games won and lost.
For example, one of those incidents was Francois Louw stealing a ball in his 22 and taking it into contact. One could see Joubert miss the action. From the resulting incorrectly awarded scrum, he awarded a penalty which concluded with another 3 points by Steyn.
Cheat, no, I don’t believe so. Intimidated, yes. One sided? Without question.
31 May 2010, 22:41 pm
Andre Watson must be deaf because craig joubert did repeat himself on many occasions one that comes to mind is when he shouted to matfield to leave it its a ruck he said that atleast twice maybe even three times matfield even looked up at him and he still had hes hand on the ball.
31 May 2010, 23:48 pm
cry me a river all you sour brommer supporters! Pathetic, just like your average team! I cannot wait for the S15, lets see if you even make the semi’s. The best thing for SA rugby is that you end up behind the Lions, then it will be very difficult for Springbok selectors to justify the Brommer selections, and perhaps then and only then the Boks will have a descent chance of defending their title.
1 Jun 2010, 02:07 am
@Nartjie(Nartjie)-214:
Doooooooooooooooooooooooooos!
1 Jun 2010, 08:43 am
Well Mr Watson, you can manipulate statistics to prove your point. How many of Joubert’s dubious calls came within striking distance of the poles?
The bulls first 9 points came in this manner, then when Hougard scored the try, it was game over.
Look I’m not saying the stormers would have won the match, but those penalties for the bulls just swung the game momentum.
It’s funny how the bulls fans bitterly criticised Joubert after their loss to the blues, screaming how biased Joubert was, now that they were on the favoured end of Joubert’s whistle, it’s all ok??
Friggin hypocrites.
1 Jun 2010, 10:31 am
@modawg(modawg)-216:
Listen to$$er.Can the Bulls help that your fat frontrows collapse the scrums in front of their poles?????
Must Joubert have given the penalties on the other end of the field??
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