Sneaky Phillips seals Welsh win
12 Mar 2011
GARETH DUNCAN watched Mike Phillips score a controversial try which proved to be the deciding moment in Wales’ 19-13 win over Ireland in Cardiff on Saturday.
The Wales scrumhalf received a quick line-out throw and darted 35m down the left touchline to score in the corner. However, the replays showed the ball he received was not the same one kicked out into touch, meaning the try should have not been allowed. Referee Jonathan Kaplan asked his assistant Peter Allan to confirm if it was the correct ball, and he wrongfully did. Ireland had the opporunity to score a match-winning try at the death as they only trailed by six points, but the Welsh defence managed to restrict the visitors and held on for a tight win.
It was Ireland who started the game strongly as skipper Brian O’Driscoll latched on to a pass from wing Tommy Bowe to cross the whitewash in the second minute. Flyhalf Ronan O’Gara added the extras before opposite number and Man of the Match James Hook kicked two penalties. O’Gara then traded penalties with wing Leigh Halfpenny for a 13-9 lead at the break.
Midway through the third quarter, Phillips dotted down in the corner for the controversial moment of the encounter and Hook extended Wales’ lead to six points with a conversion and penalty.
Ireland spent most of the closing stages in Wales’ red zone but they couldn’t reach the chalk before the final whistle. The win keeps Wales’ slim Six Nations crown hopes alive as they will have to beat France by a big margin in their last fixture next weekend and will need log leaders England to lose one of their last two games against Scotland or Ireland.
12 Comments
12 Mar 2011, 21:29 pm
Jonathon you made a boo boo dragon
12 Mar 2011, 21:37 pm
@Flametop(Flametop)-1: sounds like it was the assistants fault really.
12 Mar 2011, 22:16 pm
@rangerman(rangerman)-2:
Despite the whole stadium witness the ball go into the stand from Sexton’s kick?
He should not have even needed to consult the TJ
13 Mar 2011, 00:18 am
@Flametop(Flametop)-3:
Bring on Pro Legota!
13 Mar 2011, 00:28 am
@rangerman(rangerman)-2:
IF one knows for A FACT the match referee is allowed to ask the TMO about ball swapping, than Kaplan mad a huge error of judgement!
But
If the TMO rules DO NOT facilitate the referee with a TMO assistance for case such as ball swapping, then what the fuss?
Anybody knows the rule?
13 Mar 2011, 00:45 am
@Hondo(Hondo)-5: As far as I know, the TMO can only rule on “the act of scoring the try”. The reason being that if you can take it back further, where is the cut off?
13 Mar 2011, 01:07 am
The same as Sharks-Hurricanes 2 years ago. Canes ahead, ball kicked into stands, quick lineout with a new ball with nobody of Canes near and try changed the game.
Nothing new under the sun.
13 Mar 2011, 01:22 am
As you South Africans would say “that was a stuffup of note”. That won’t go down well on Kaplan’s cv when it comes to assessing which refs get which games at the WC. Grrrr.
13 Mar 2011, 03:40 am
The Referee can rightly say that he cosulted his Assistant. I wounder how much the Assistant will be fined? I bet there is no mechanism to punish him.A mazing that the players put up with this nonsense. I am currently watching a replay of Cheetahs v Lions. As in all matches at the moment, ie 6 Nations, Superugby, Mahgners, Aviva Cup and Top 14 there is penaly after penalt y after pebnalty and most of the time neither the players nor the spectators know what they are for. The scrum put in by the Blues in their match against the Force was nothing short of disgraceful. Doesnt the Law state claerly that the ball should be put in “at quick speed straight alomg middle line so that it fist touches the ground beyond the width of the nearest prop’s shoulders”? Why do’my they focus on this simple Law instaed of their bewildering interpretations of the vague the breakdown laws. As for their laugahble attempts to set scrums? Why can’t they work out a simple unfirm call of crouch,one , two, three, touch, one ,two three, pause ,one ,two, three, engage instead of the inconsistent calls we have now? In the Force mtach the referee actaully reset a perfect engagement because it took place before he could say “engage”.I is patheticv. Who managers these people? Part of the problem is that they have an ex- referee in charge of the referess at the IRB, I would have a former player.
Methinks they should change the name of the Game from Rugby to “Referees Roulette”
13 Mar 2011, 09:46 am
Poor Jonathan Kaplan: You just can’t get quality help these days! Some of the so called “Assistant Referees” are drawing theirs fees under false pretences.
13 Mar 2011, 09:57 am
I agree with Oupa, the scrum feed is frequently straight into the second row. It is rarely picked up by the referees. We also see a lot of crooked feeds in the line outs, although the refs do pick those up from time to time.
As for the Ex Players to assist in control and administration of the referees: I can think of several guys who would be able to do a great job. I think the Poacher turned Game Keeper system would work well.
14 Mar 2011, 07:16 am
Copied from the Irish Times:
FOR THE fateful quick throw by Matthew Rees to Mike Phillips for Wales’ match-winning try on Saturday, not only is it quite clear that the ball went into the crowd from Jonathan Sexton’s sliced kick out on the full (from where the ball was thrown back) but a Welsh ball boy hands another ball to Rees in full view of both touch judge Peter Allan and Jonathan Kaplan.
After Phillips scores, Paul O’Connell and other Ireland players make it abundantly clear a different ball was used, as Brian O’Driscoll relays to Kaplan. The referee consults Allan, who begins to describe what happened when he is interrupted by Kaplan.
“Is it the correct ball?” Kaplan asks Peter Allan.
“It was the correct ball. Yes, yes,” says Allan, nodding his head.
“It is?”
“Yea,” repeats Allan.
Afterwards, the fourth official, Nigel Owens, confirmed Kaplan could only have gone to the Television Match Official for a ruling relating to “the act of scoring a try” according to IRB protocol, and that this debate has raged within the IRB for the last five years. Yet there remained an argument for Kaplan extending the protocol by going to his TMO given the unusual circumstances, despite Allan being so emphatic.
Law 19.2 (d) specifically states that: “For a quick throw-in the player must use the ball that went into touch. A quick throw-in is not permitted if another person has touched the ball apart from the player throwing it in and an opponent who carried it into touch.”
Thus, the quick throw should not have been allowed because the ball had gone into the crowd, and another ball was used. In addition, a quick throw-in can only be taken from where the ball crossed the line or back towards the goal-line. Sexton’s kick went out on the full inside the Welsh half, whereupon Allan signals the lineout to be taken just outside the Irish 10-metre line.
Thus, Rees’ under-arm throw before the lineout has formed is taken in a line from where Sexton kicked out on the full, which is in front of where the ball crossed the touchline. Illegal on three counts, it also looks as if Rees’ foot is inside the touchline before he throws. The 35-year-old Allan played prop for Watsonians and is a full-time, professional referee, though he would widely be regarded as a poor referee even by Magners League standards. The 43-year-old Kaplan, who was born in Durban, is also a full-time referee and currently holds the record for the most international matches as referee, though ironically Kaplan (the most experienced Six Nations referee ever) has previous here.
During a Super 14 game between the Crusaders and the Hurricanes last year, the ball went out and was handled by players on the Hurricanes’ bench and by Conrad Smith. The Crusaders’ Andy Ellis grabbed the ball out of Smith’s hands, took the quick throw and Zac Guildford scored a try that, along with another controversial last-minute try, cost the Hurricanes the game.
The referee was Kaplan and after the game he said: “The law surrounding that is that if it’s touched by a player from another team then it’s okay. But if it’s touched by a player from your own team then you can’t go quickly.”
The law says no such thing, and Kaplan was roundly criticised.
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