Rolland stands by red card
15 Nov 2011
World Cup semi-final referee Alain Rolland believes he made the right call to eject Wales skipper Sam Warburton despite several claims to the contrary.
There was an outcry from many Welsh journalists as well as members of the Wales management following the semi-final match in Auckland. Warburton was red-carded for a dangerous tackle on
France winger Vincent Clerc, and while the No 7 has since admitted that he got it wrong, some still believe that Wales would have won the game, and possibly the World Cup, if not for Rolland’s decision.
The Irish referee has finally responded to accusations that he ‘ruined the game’. Rolland maintains that he got the call right.
‘If I had to do it all over again I would do the same thing,’ he told the Western Mail. ‘I don’t think it needs to be vindicated full stop. The important part for referees, no matter what sport it is, is to take the emotion out of it. We can only officiate on the action itself and what he did merited what happened next because it was dangerous.
‘Did he mean to do it? Was it intentional or unintentional? We don’t officiate on intention, we officiate on the action itself. Unfortunately, what had happened gave me no option but to do what I did.
‘Any time you make a decision, 50 per cent of the people think it is a great call and 50 per cent of the people say “How did he come to that decision?”. That is just the way it is.’
Rolland added that the response by the Welsh contingent and many neutrals wasn’t unexpected.
‘The thing you have to remember is that straight after the game there was huge emotion everywhere, which is understandable. But in time, maybe in 10 or 15 years, it might calm itself down.’
Rolland also commended Warburton for coming out and admitting that he deserved the red card.
‘To be fair to Sam, I think it is a true measure of the man he is. I don’t think he had to come out to say anything and I didn’t really care one way or the other because what happened, happened.
‘I think for the game in general it was a very good comment by Sam because parents looking on would be happy to see he came out and said what he said, which might make the game a bit safer.’
Wales will play the Wallabies in a one-off Test later this month.
71 Comments
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15 Nov 2011, 23:52 pm
@grant10(grant10)-50: but why is jake so hated? i thought he was great coach but then idont live in southAfrica so dont think i’m getting the whole picture
pfft. PDV isnt qualified enough to peel oranges
15 Nov 2011, 23:56 pm
@man1a(man1a)-49:
“these bad champs have consistently owned the boks in 3N for 3 of the past 4 seasons. if ABs are that bad, what does that make the boks?”
Forgive me but in the last 4 years, the All Blacks have hardly “owned” the Boks.
Nice try though 
In the 3N for those 4 years, the record stands at:
Played 11
Boks 5
All Blacks 6
No other team in the world has beaten you on more occasions in the same period.
We klapped you in Carisbrook and Hamilton too
16 Nov 2011, 00:03 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-52: yeah sorry that was a petty knee jerk reaction to bigHits blog. i know boks are a great team unfulfilling their true potential. without PDV i shudder to think what they could’ve accomplished in the past 4 years. PDV and playerPower did non southAfrican teams a favour.
yeah the win at carisbrook was huge. think that was a 50 year record that boks broke there that day. Boks fired that year and FDP(especially) and morne had outstanding seasons. the following year AB’s dominated but I was real impressed with Boks individuals who had a never say die attitude. especially jaqueFourie (Boks player of the year then) and schalk
can you answer me about jake white?
16 Nov 2011, 00:23 am
@man1a(man1a)-53:
Dude, there are plenty of people in SA who rated JW. A few doos’s like skoppie and grant have little personal vendettas against him, but I would take that with a pinch of salt, just like Grants dislike of Smit and his hardon for that twat Watson!
16 Nov 2011, 00:29 am
@man1a(man1a)-53: nice post. Re Jake White, I’m not so sure why he is so despised. He restored a lot of pride to SA rugby, the belief that SA SHOULD beat the ABs at home and we did in 2004 and 2005. He won the 3N in his 1st year, IRB coach of the year, and a RWC.
Some of his results weren’t that flash though. ie Against Ireland and France, for example, and the 3Ns in 2006 and 2007 were terrible.
Overall, his results of 66% were only just higher than the all time Bok record of 65%. He was good at times but bad at times too….
Not so sure why some get personal with him, seems a bit childish if you ask me. Perhaps because he can be a bit outspoken?
I think a lot of the antipathy came after he left the role…after he won back a bit of support in winning the RWC and being recalled back to SA mid EOYT in 2006… he talked quite a bit post RWC2007, released an autobiography and gave the impression of being a bit bitter.
16 Nov 2011, 00:30 am
Sorry, I should have said “I’m not so sure why he is despised by some.”
16 Nov 2011, 00:47 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-55: @whatever(whatever)-54:
thanx. ok guess the impression i got was a few vocal bloggers with a personal vendetta against him.
thanx for the education
i’ll be reading jakeWhites book next
16 Nov 2011, 00:58 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-55: agree bout jakes track record. he was definately a thorn in the AB’s side when he took over. loved hating him.
imo he lifted the level of SH rugby, just as the Boks did in 2008?
adversity forced the NZ and Aus teams to evolve and come up with better tactics and players.
say what u will bout the boks but they epitomise the word adversity by creating it for other teams. shame you also have adversity off the field with your admin and coaches.
16 Nov 2011, 01:04 am
@Sheriff(Sheriff)-6: How do you come to the conclusion that France dominated NZ in the final? They prevented NZ from scoring sure, but dominating? I hardly think they dominated.
France may have played better than some expected, but you cant twist that into saying they dominated NZ. Much of the game was played in the middle of the park, both teams played cancelling rugby, the AB’s were ruthless in defence, as much as France were too.
16 Nov 2011, 01:16 am
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-37: youre so confused.
We lost 2 games this year, it happens. We were still ranked number one after that though , do you recall?
We won the RWC, by winning every game, that happens too
Are we the best ?- the stats say we are, why are you going round and round in circles trying to belittle NZ or make yourself feel better? You’ll only get dizzy.
NZ played their best game v Aus a week earlier, however, to still play below par, with our 4th choice 10, against a spirited French side, who obviously played their best game, you’d have to say, we did pretty well under the circumstances.
I’ll put it to you another way – had your team acheived the same, would you be saying the same things now, saffas, Big Hit etc?
You shouldn’t fool yourself to make you feel better, its a terribly sickness.
16 Nov 2011, 01:21 am
@KiaKahaNZ(KiaKahaNZ)-60: nice perspective
NZ played their worst game in the finals and won
France played their best game and lost
southAfrica played a dominant game vs aus and lost
aus got owned by boks but won.
much better result for the AB’s
16 Nov 2011, 06:24 am
“Honest Brycie” pooping his pants on officiating in South Africa:
“In all honesty, I’m not going to go over there if there’s any personal threat or I have concerns about my safety because, in the end, it’s a job. I know that and also it’s just a sport so I’m not going to put myself at risk.”
Lawrence said he had thought about his performance in the quarter-final every day since the match and accepts he made errors.
“My quarter-final performance created a lot of negative reaction in South Africa, pretty hostile, very personal, very harsh,” he said. “Also, on the flipside of that, I got a lot of really strong positive support from rugby people in New Zealand and around the world who probably know me a little bit more than the people in South Africa and were feeling for me during that time.
“… I was disappointed with some aspects in my own performance that day after refereeing four really pretty strong games in pool play. I’m not blaming anyone for the quarter-final refereeing display apart from myself. I didn’t referee as well as I could.”
Lawrence said he recognised he would be punished for his performance.
“Look, there has been some pretty clear consequences from my quarter-final display,” he said. “I’m not going to be refereeing Six Nations next year.
“They can say that means I’m rested but, in reality, I accept that one of the consequences of my performance is that I’m not going to be doing Six Nations.”
Why does he keep “thinking” about his performance every day since the game? Guilty conscience perhaps.
16 Nov 2011, 06:29 am
@petoors(petoors)-62: harsh?
bryce lawrence is a cu nt ke his “get the yarpies” **** of a father.
he is the perfect example of why people lose faith in refs.
fu k himi hope he never ever sets foot in south africa.
besides for that i hope the little toss lives a good life even if his cheating eats him from the inside.
16 Nov 2011, 06:32 am
hilarious!
the nz ref of the year to be is being punished for a piss poor displa in a world cup QUARTER FINAL????????
and we are supposed to believe this isnt the kiwis giving us the finger with their jingoistic attitude?
even bryce the doos recognises it?
1987 and 2011. the most amateur world cups ever held, what a regression.
16 Nov 2011, 08:18 am
@rangerman(rangerman)-64:
Talking of amateur
16 Nov 2011, 11:40 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-65: yes, tells please hurri, you boys have cornered the market so share your perspective please!
16 Nov 2011, 14:33 pm
Rolland called it right on the day … that’s the law – if it was a Kiwi player IN AN IMPORTANT GAME that did that not even a scrum would have been awarded – SEE BRAD THORNE SPEARING JOHN SMIT INTO THE GROUND … Smit was injured for three months, Brad got cited and a ONE-WEEK BAN …
Bakkies would have been banned for 48 years and then executed …
Got to back off – going through that door again …
16 Nov 2011, 22:00 pm
@J.B. Cowper(J.B. Cowper)-67: you so cannot catergorise bradThorn and BakkiesBotha in the the same class of cheating.
bradThorn may not be the cleanest player but at least he tries and is ashamed when he fails. dont condone it but can understand when brad upended smit. smit pushed his face into the ground. my reaction would’ve been the same .
Bakkies revels in being a cheating thug. Bakkies has had a lucky career and has escaped the majority of the sh! t he gets up to. good on him. AB’s needs some thugs like bakkies
18 Nov 2011, 16:13 pm
@man1a(man1a)-68:
Mana – no angels in test rugby, Bakkies a definite thug – but Gatland went public and said the ban on him was unwarranted and ridiculous because he had done nothing wrong in the legality sense – even that Welsh prop publicly agreed – they went for him because he made the Boks much stronger – I would say our best player, with a few other world-class players.
No the question is the punishment – Bakkies would have got really over-punished – but Brad, in comparison to someone ‘clean’ like Sam Warburton (who got 3 weeks for a less dangerous tackle) – and Brad gets only one – and he really hurt John Smit. Double-standards mate – and everyone can see it – Paddy O’Brien, John Eales and Grahma Mourie have to get the hell out there – and as soon as possible. They have misued their powers and not served the game impartially.
20 Nov 2011, 20:24 pm
@J.B. Cowper(J.B. Cowper)-69: u gotta be kidding about bakkies getting over punished? sure bakkies is an intergral boks member and is one of the worlds top 5 locks but over punishment? really?
i like bakkies he’s a mongrel and a take no prisoners player. theres a line that shouldnt be crossed and bakkies crosses it almost every game. Brad when he dropped smit it was out of frustration and it wasnt intended to take smit out for as long as it did. when bakkies does what only he can do with the style he does it, it has intent behind all his ‘misdemeanors’ and he intends to injure a player. its how bakkies plays, smart and he’s pretty much gotten away with the majority of what he does due to his being a lot smarter and craftier than world rugby gives him credit for.
bakkies is a great player but when he gets caught his history and intent is taken into account, which is why he gets pinged for as much as he does. you cant compare the transgressions of brad vs bakkies without taking into account intent and history of offensives.
pointing out the difference of sentences for what brad did to smit vs bakkies dislocating some guys arm while he’s trapped in a ruck is over simplified and worlds apart.
21 Nov 2011, 02:19 am
@J.B. Cowper(J.B. Cowper)-69: but i do agree that on paper the punishments look lop sided…and it would be if it were any other bok, cept bakkies.
I’m sure if troyFlavell or richardLoe were still around then their punishments would be more comparitive
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