Referee Andrew Brace subjected to appalling online abuse in wake of Autumn Nations Cup final
Referee Andrew Brace has been subject to an appalling tirade of abuse online following his officiating of the Autumn Nations Cup final.
Fans have taken to directly tagging the 32-year-old in their posts on Twitter, and worse still, some have opted to comment on the obituary of his late father.
This is a stark reminder of the dark side of social media, as no person should face abuse of this nature. Moreover, it continues to tarnish the reputation of rugby, which seems to cling to the illusion that it has a higher set of standards than other sports.
England snuck to a sudden death 22-19 win over an inexperienced France at Twickenham, but looked as though they were heading for a humiliating loss in the final minutes of regular time when trailing 19-12.
Eddie Jones’ side managed to score a last gasp try, but there were at least two occasions in the final two minutes where England seemed to have knocked the ball on, but went unnoticed. In fact, Owen Farrell’s fumble at the base of a ruck actually led to a penalty to England, which allowed them to kick to the corner and Luke Cowan-Dickie to score from the ensuing lineout.
Conversely, France’s Sekou Macalou was wrongly adjudged to have knocked the ball on following France’s kick-off for the second half of extra time. England won a penalty from the scrum and were able to relieve the pressure and work their way upfield and eventually earn the match-winning penalty themselves. Had the scrum not been awarded in the first place, England were toiling in their own 22.
While Brace received the brunt of this criticism online, it has been highlighted that the television match official and the touch judges were silent in instances where their voices needed to be heard.
Brace was on the wrong side of the ruck when Farrell knocked the ball on, as he was only moments before when Billy Vunipola appeared to knock the ball on as well. It is understandable that he may have missed them given the melee of bodies in his way, but it is most surprising that his officiating team did not assist him.
Regardless of how aggrieved someone feels after a loss, very few would argue that this is acceptable behaviour, and indeed there are many that have deleted their comments. Social media is a platform which allows people to voice their opinions, but tagging their target in a post or hijacking a personal post of theirs are new depths.
Hundreds of messages, many too unpleasant to publish, were directed at the young referee.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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