I just got this in the email this morning. Someone in Aus saw the same game I did.
A copy of a letter or article "The Australian"
LIMITING THE POWER OF THE WHISTLE
There are no doubt a lot of Australian rugby supporters celebrating our
victory over the Springboks yesterday. There are also a number of us that
are wondering how on earth we managed to pull it off against a side that
dominated possession and territory and lineouts. Now, I dont want to take
anything away from the Australian victory our boys did perform superbly but
on the day the Springboks were, we have to admit, the better side. The boks,
as always were magnanimous in defeat with a somewhat pragmatic approach to
the result. I wonder what our boys would have said faced with the same
situation of blatant incompetence by Mr Bryce Lawrence.
I support Australia and always will but for those of us that believe in fair
play this was a hollow victory. This was very much like fighting a worthy
opponent with one arm strapped behind his back it leaves a bad taste. There
were rumours about Mr Lawrences impartiality before kick-off from a lot of
ex pat South Africans now living in Australia but we tend to dismiss these
conspiracy theories with a grin. Certainly, Mr Lawrences performance on the
field did nothing to dispel those theories. His performance was nothing
short of abysmal. He did not award the bok try because of a dubious forward
pass. I have looked and looked and to me, anyway, it did not look forward.
Minutes later when the boks once again breached our defences and were well
on the way to scoring another try, he called them back for a forward pass.
If the first call was contentious, there certainly was nothing wrong with
the second one. Here, I must ask why not use the eye in the sky? An
impressive expensive piece of equipment that should be used for such
decisions.
He failed to penalise Pocock for slowing the ball down. If we had played
like that against the All Blacks, they would not have been so quiet about
it. and rightly so. In the dying minutes of the game he was in full view of
at least 2 high tackles by our boys that went unpunished. Any of these
transgressions, if properly acted on, would have surely given the game to
the Boks with their advantage over territory. To rub salt in the South
African wounds, he awarded a high tackle to the Wallabies for a chest high
tackle.
We won, but did we really? Our sport has always been regarded as a hooligans
game played by gentlemen If we do not want rugby union to degenerate into a
farce that soccer can become we need to make sure that our refs are of
suitable calibre. They need to be trustworthy gentlemen.
Mr Lawrence, I would advise against any planned holidays to South Africa for
a couple of years.
Chris Davis
The Australian
