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Rugby Australia defend Angus Gardner after red card reversal
By Online Editors
Rugby Australia have defended referee Angus Gardner and asked World Rugby for clarification after cancelling the red card issued to France fullback Benjamin Fall last weekend.
Gardner and TMO George Ayoub sent Fall off 11 minutes into New Zealand's 26-13 win after Beauden Barrett landed in a dangerous position following an in-air collision.
Gardner ruled Fall had breached Law 9.17, which reads: "A player must not tackle, charge, pull, push or grasp an opponent whose feet are off the ground."
After the match a World Rugby-appointed Independent Judicial Committee deemed Fall's contact with All Blacks centre Anton Lienert-Brown ultimately affected his ability to contest for the ball.
A statement from World Rugby read: "We did not consider that the Player would have foreseen the events, which ultimately unfolded, and therefore could not have, in our opinion, given the speed of the events and the dynamics at play, taken any preventative steps to avoid the collision with NZ #10 or to have put himself in a position to contest the ball as he had initially planned."
Fall's red card was dismissed, with the statement also saying "the referee's decision to issue the red card was wrong".
Rugby Australia high-performance boss Ben Whitaker told Fairfax Media the organisation fully backed Gardner.
"Angus is one of the best referees in the world and I've had a lot to do with Angus over many, many years and our view is he made the right call on Saturday night," Whitaker said. "It's really unfortunate that a hearing then comes out and suggests he got it wrong."
"We feel pretty confused when we've been engaged and involved at the highest level of refereeing development, then you have this decision handed down.
"It's tough for Angus and we're 100 per cent behind Angus to make sure he gets back on the horse and continues to prove he is one of the best referees in the world."
The review committee stated, "No criticism is made of the referee nor, in our opinion, would any be warranted."
Despite this, Rugby Australia remains adamant that Gardner's decision was the correct one.
"We've got in contact with World Rugby at all levels to make sure we understood what was going on so that Angus was well supported," Whitaker said. "How those situations in a game are to be ruled was pretty clear to us. That's why we feel Angus got it right because World Rugby spent a lot of time looking at how we best adjudicate the sort of things that can happen in those situations."
"We just want to be really clear on why that's the case. That's the cause of our confusion. We want to know the supposed plans going forward."
Gardner has been named as assistant referee for Saturday's third Test between New Zealand and France.
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Latest Comments
I agree.
I’d like to know what constitutes a 208 week ban though?
Must the eyeball be dislodged? Hanging by a vein?
Go to commentsAlso a Bristol fan and echo your sentiments.
I love watching Bristol but their approach will only get them so far I think. Exeter played like this when they first got promoted to the prem and had intermittent success, it wasn't until they wised up and played a more balanced game that they became a consistently top side.
I really want Bristol to continue playing this brand of rugby and I don't mind them running it from under their posts but I don't think they need to do it every single time. They need to be just a little bit more selective about when and where on the pitch they play. Every game they put themselves under so much needless pressure by turning the ball over under their posts trying to do kamikaze moves when it's not required. By all means run it from your goal line if there is a chance for a counter attack, we all want to see Bristol running in 100m tries from under their posts but I think until they learn when to do it and when to be pragmatic, they are unlikely to win the premiership.
Defense has been a real positive from Bristol, they've shown a lot of improvement there... And I will say that I think this kamikaze strategy they employ is a very good one for a struggling side and could be employed by Newcastle. It's seems to have turned around Gloucester's fortunes. The big advantage is even if you don't have the biggest and best players, what you have is cohesion. This is why Scotland keep battering England. England have better individuals but they look muddled as a team, trying to play a mixed strategy under coaches who lack charisma, the team has no identity. Scotland come out and give it full throttle from 1-15 even if they struggle against the top sides, sides like England and Wales who lack that identity drown under the relentless will and synergy of the Scots. If Newcastle did the same they could really surprise some people, I know the weather is bad up there but it hasn't bothered the Scots. Bristol can learn from Scotland too, Pat is on to something when he says the following but Scotland don't play test matches like headless chickens. They still play with the same level of clarity and ambition Bristol do but they are much better at picking their moments. They needed to go back to this mad game to get their cohesion back after a couple of seasons struggling but I hope they get a bit wiser from matches like Leinster and La Rochelle.
“If there’s clarity on what you’re trying to do as a team you can win anything.”
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