Walsh should have been sacked
6 Mar 2013
MARK KEOHANE writes Steve Walsh should have been given the chop, even if just for a few games, for charging into Conrad Smith.
If a player had lost his cool, as Walsh did, and made contact with a referee he would have been fronting a disciplinary and all sorts of condemnation would accompany the appearance.
Walsh is again becoming a law unto himself and his ego is again getting the better of him.
The Australian-based Kiwi, who in Justin Marshall’s autobiography, admitted a rugby field wasn’t big enough to accommodate the egos of Marshall and himself and further made the admission that he couldn’t stand the sight of Marshall’s face and would penalise the Crusaders just because Marshall irritated him, has a controversial history with the whistle.
He was sacked previously because of his battle with booze and he returned to the game humbled and rejuvenated.
His performance in the Canes game was more of the old Walsh. His communication skills were lacking, he was larger than the players, he was No 1 and he was very anti the Canes in his approach.
The contact with Smith, when the Canes skipper queried a penalty, warranted sanction. It looked ugly and it looked malicious. Walsh was angry and lost the plot.
Smith has shown his class is being diplomatic and brushing off the incident, but Walsh erred in making the wrong call on a few occasions in a frantic final five minutes and it had a bearing on the outcome of the match.
Referee boss Lyndon Bray concedes Walsh got it wrong and Smith was right to query Walsh, and he further concedes Walsh’s performance wasn’t up to standard in the final few minutes. But, despite this, he told the Fairfax Media reporters the overall review assessment for Walsh was 93 percent and that the official reviewers were happy with the job done.
It is nothing short of disgraceful.
The Hurricanes lodged an official complaint and Bray said he and Canes coach Mark Hammett had agreed to disagree.
Bray said Walsh had made ‘two or three’ incorrect calls against the Hurricanes but defended Walsh’s overall performance.
‘Mark feels Steve didn’t have a very good day. My argument to that was I don’t think it was too bad, but I absolutely support that at a critical part of the game we got a couple wrong,’ said Bray.
Given this Walsh should have been stood down, even if just for a match or two.
‘I can understand that frustration, but across the game I don’t think there’s much argument other than Steve had a pretty good day generally. What Mark talked about really came down to a small number of decisions in the second half which really had an impact on the Hurricanes. Fair cop.
‘I think Steve would agree with Mark he had two or three calls in the last quarter that weren’t as accurate as he’d like, including the penalty on the goal line which resulted in the back chat. So that all got a bit ugly because we agree the decision was wrong.’
Bray further defended Walsh’s clash with Smith as accidental and not malicious. You decide.
‘He was [caught in the moment]. He was in decision-making mode. It’s just one of those things,’ said Bray. “One of Steve’s strengths is that he’s a strong character on the field and I think that’s pretty important for a referee. On Friday night both the players and the referee got a little frustrated.
‘He had a couple of errors build up and they went against the Hurricanes at key moments and that’s where you can understand Mark’s frustrations.’
Walsh’s reward for getting it wrong in the crucial time of the game was to fly to London to referee a Six Nations international this weekend and he will resume business in Super Rugby on his return.
Referee accountability is an area that continues to be glossed over in all competitions. The standard of refereeing in the early part of the competition has been inconsistent, the application of the five second use it law at ruck time has been so subjectively applied, depending on the referee, that it is a farce and certain referees allow teams to slow the ball down with repeated calls of ‘release release’ by which time the damage has been done to the attacking side.
Referee interpretation still influences too much of the play, as does the time of the match when the offending team transgressors. Teams commit professional fouls on their goalline in the first 20 minutes and never face a yellow card, but the same transgression is always punished with a yellow or red card if occurring in the last five or 10 minutes of a match.
Referees, like players, are paid professionals. They need to be held accountable when getting it wrong and there needs to be more sanction and scrutiny on those who allow the play to be slowed down by repeated cautions but rarely with consequence. Referees will tell you they caution to get flow but if they penalised immediately and set a standard that slowing down the ball won’t be tolerated they’d then get the flow in a game.
Generally there is too much back slapping within the referee fraternity and while it is a thankless task to be a referee let’s not forget these guys chose it as a profession, and if they want to be treated like professionals they must equally be judged as professionals.
Walsh betrayed the professionalism of an international referee in the way he lost it with Smith and lost it with the Canes. There had to be a consequence to that poor form. Instead there is only reward. It is why nothing will change.
294 Comments
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6 Mar 2013, 09:36 am
It was clearly an accident. He turned around ready to start running and ran into Smith. Stuck his elbow out to protect himself.
You can’t tell me that was on purpose, and he apologized straight away.
6 Mar 2013, 09:41 am
I missed the incident but in general….all antipodean refs are kak.
we all know that, hell, even the players know it.
Bryce Lawrence…kiwi ref of the year 2012. farken funny. Even Richie M in his autobiography in the exact same year says how kak Bryce is/was.
so long as there is a kiwi ref boss…it is the blind leading the blind.
6 Mar 2013, 09:42 am
“referee boos”?
Freudian slip eh Mark? Know where to find your spellchecker?
6 Mar 2013, 09:44 am
I agree that he should be sacked, but because of his incompetence and giant ego, and not because of the charge.
We often see players and refs getting in each other’s way and I don’t recall ever seeing a malicious clash.
6 Mar 2013, 09:47 am
Walsh should have been sacked http://t.co/Ch42NH31nr via @sharethis there has 2 b consequence 2 referees who lose the plot
6 Mar 2013, 09:50 am
When push comes to shove it was just making a mountain out of a molehill says Stormer in a teacup.
6 Mar 2013, 09:55 am
bakkiesvis going to love this one ‘D
6 Mar 2013, 09:57 am
@Dilligafrican-3: You ever tried to type a piece with a nine week old staffie puppy sharing the keyboard. All typos now corrected with puppy snoring and still rested on forearm
6 Mar 2013, 09:57 am
@Dilligafrican-3: mark was thinking “doos”
6 Mar 2013, 09:59 am
@keo-8: really? ” Refree boss” hahaha
6 Mar 2013, 09:59 am
@Transformation-9: lol!
@keo-8: hahahaha…what’s its name?
Don’t worry, I’m not a spelling nazi – I like hugging them and going “There, their, they’re”
6 Mar 2013, 10:00 am
The incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifQh80FGum8
He apologized immediately.
6 Mar 2013, 10:04 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-2: click on link then
6 Mar 2013, 10:05 am
@Dilligafrican-11: her name is charli
6 Mar 2013, 10:12 am
hmmm…nothing much in it but a deliberate shove from Walsh who obviously realised very quickly what he’d done. Its not a blind bump into someone, his arms clearly go to shove the player away.
6 Mar 2013, 10:13 am
Look at the push there was nothing accidental about the way he shoved him. I don’t care if he apologised immediately. If a player had done that to a referee and apologized immediately it would have made no difference. He shoves him out of the way. He makes deliberate contact with the player. That is a no no in the game.
6 Mar 2013, 10:15 am
@keo-16: What’s Percy’s take on this?
6 Mar 2013, 10:15 am
@Dilligafrican-11:
????
6 Mar 2013, 10:18 am
what do you guys make of how referees have applied the five second use it change at the ruck and generally what is your take on how referees constantly scream out to a player slowing the ball down ‘leave it … leave it … stay back …’ by which time all the damage has been done. The referee should pin the oke immediately and set a standard. Give five penalties in the first five minutes if needs be and you will quickly see blokes rolling away, releasing the tackled player to play the ball and actually playing to the way the law was intended. Referees think they are coaches and ‘coach’ for flow but all they do is allow for the professional fouls to become an art, especially at slowing down the speed at which ball is recycled at the break down.
6 Mar 2013, 10:19 am
@keo-16:
I agree, the apology is not spontainious.
Almost as if he realized he was caught on camera.
that would be an instant red card if a player did the same.
6 Mar 2013, 10:20 am
@Dilligafrican-17: exactly he shoved a touch judge and got 18 months and ended up serving six months out of the game. Walsh deliberately pushed Smith out of the way. It wasn’t reactionary. There was intent. He lost the plot and a referee shouldn’t be excused that in the so called ‘heat of the moment’
6 Mar 2013, 10:20 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-20: That’s why you are the Brigadier you are not easily fooled lol
6 Mar 2013, 10:21 am
@keo-19:
i agree again.
I wish refs would just apply the law and hopefully all the “interpretation” would be gone from the game.
6 Mar 2013, 10:22 am
@keo-19: From what I’ve seen the teams have already gotten clever on this one – all they do is hold the ball inside the ruck and when the 9 wants it it suddenly pops out to be “available”
6 Mar 2013, 10:23 am
@Dilligafrican-24:
….the bulls were onto this one last season already.
they just extend the maul and buy more time.
6 Mar 2013, 10:24 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-25: nonsense. Its just because the bulls love to maul
6 Mar 2013, 10:26 am
@Dilligafrican-26:
and why not, did you miss those poor ******** from Perth getting marched single file,-double time half-way up the field last saturday?
6 Mar 2013, 10:28 am
@keo-19:
Only SA refs seems to apply the 5-sec law consistently. Rucks still a mess and mauls now ever becoming a bigger mess where the team in possession is never policed where players join the maul illegally (in front of the ball carrier).
Extended TMO allowances have only contributed more controversy and confusion in the game, not it’s intended purpose of getting calls right (100%) which to my mind (with current technology) is impossible any case.
6 Mar 2013, 10:29 am
Much ado about nothing. The push was accidental but I agree on him being a k@k ref.
6 Mar 2013, 10:29 am
@keo-14:
Is she typing now?
6 Mar 2013, 10:34 am
@sparticus-29:
no way in hell, he lifted his arm to push off Smith.
the apology was an afterthought of guilt.
I say hang-draw-quarter him.
6 Mar 2013, 10:36 am
@keo-19: What irritates me the most are players (mostly NZ) standing up and “taking up space” while they should roll away.
This has two consequences: The arriving player from the attacking team needs to dodge this player to clean out an arriving player from the opposition or he needs to clean this guy out which gives an arriving player from the opposition time to make a steal.
Not once did I see this “tactic” being used in our derbies until I watched the Cheetahs game where some of the Chiefs players tried to do this on more than one occasion.
6 Mar 2013, 10:37 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-31:
I say put him in chains and send him to Australia….
6 Mar 2013, 10:40 am
He did lose the plot…the pressure was getting to him and Smith was on his face questioning him a lot near the end.But i still think the push was accidental, he didnt mean to do it i believe. But its like a player that accidentally throws a head high in the game, the player will get penalised, maybe Welsh should get some sort of a fine of some sort. But sacking him is going a bit far.
But Smith would have been happier if his team managed to hold the ball and not drop it when things were starting to look good.
6 Mar 2013, 10:41 am
@keo-19: Like most of the laws the ref is allowed their “interpretation”, this is what will kill this game, giving the ref leeway to keep a flowing game is bullshit, blow the rules as they are written and the players will be forced to comply, the Reds vs Canes game just proves how a ref can decided who the winner of a game will be.
Will ask again, hopefully you will reply Mark, what has happened to your mobi site?
6 Mar 2013, 10:41 am
thank you henke pistorius
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/christivanderwesthuizen/2013/03/05/the-oscar-pistorius-case-time-is-wrong-and-lulu-is-right/
6 Mar 2013, 10:43 am
don’t toy with me, Keohane…
6 Mar 2013, 10:46 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-37:
You didn’t see the game so don’t worry about this….move along
6 Mar 2013, 10:49 am
thanks Trans.
every 8 hours a woman dies from domestic violence in SA?
and you guys have the cheek to laugh and point out NZs domestic abuse problems?
how hypocritical indeed. nothin unusual for this site though.
6 Mar 2013, 10:51 am
@Transformation-36: A very good C&P… One of your best.
6 Mar 2013, 10:51 am
@keo-19: Re: the 5 second “Use It” law. At the moment, some SA scrummies seem to hang back from ruck time to allow their backlines/pods to form (*cough* Hougaard *cough*). Thereby stealing an extra couple of seconds as there’s no cleaner at the base of the ruck…
Kind of counter intuitive casue it deprives their backs of front foot ball.
6 Mar 2013, 10:53 am
poeps, who laughs at domestic abuse wherever it may be happening?
6 Mar 2013, 10:55 am
@Transformation-36:
Lulu is trying to raise her profile to avoid Zoomer’s axe.
Unfortunately every time she opens her mouth something stupid comes out.
6 Mar 2013, 10:55 am
@Transformation-42:
Trans…i believe you have been here long enough to see that a lot on here bring up NZ abuse like its a fukn game…. but you are right, domestic violence is bad..wherever it happens. Lets not go down that path though.
6 Mar 2013, 10:56 am
@Hurricane-38:
my problem is with him only making a stink about one kiwi ref pushing a kiwi player.
6 Mar 2013, 10:58 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-45:
lol
I believe Keo lets you do all the complaining about the refs…. As he knows he could never live up to your standard
6 Mar 2013, 11:01 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-45:
Are you saying if it wasn’t a kiwi player nobody would have complained?
6 Mar 2013, 11:01 am
What do you tell Poppa’s Mum with two black eyes???
Nothing, he already told her twice
6 Mar 2013, 11:02 am
Bakkies.
I see you havent mentioned the blatant cheating that allowed Chilli to score his try?
I’ll just assume you didn’t watch the game huh? lol
6 Mar 2013, 11:02 am
@Heavens Game-48:
Shut up.
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