Sport is about the players and the fans, not the officials. Photo: Ben Appleton.
Last weekend showed the agony and ecstasy of sport, but also how it can descend into farce when officials forget why they are there and who they should serve.
The AFL grand final produced what many thought would be impossible – an encounter that matched the previous week’s epic between Brisbane and Hawthorn. The high drama of Fremantle’s premature ‘wharfie time’, and the sudden eclipse by Brisbane, left viewers emotionally ragged.
On Sunday, Newcastle’s daring, heroic efforts to thwart Penrith in the NRL preliminary final were overshadowed by the tragedy of Nathan Cleary’s horrific injury and the subsequent dramatic sending-off of Phoenix Crossland.
In Townsville, the Socceroos announced themselves as a force to be reckoned with, drawing with football powerhouse Brazil, but only after the South Americans scored off the last kick of the game.
Then there are the ‘Wobbalies’, the national rugby team that in recent years has made an art form of finding ways to lose, but under new coach Les Kiss, a former Australian rugby league winger, again offer hope that the long drought is over.
On Sunday night, I arrived late to the Australia-South Africa game and was pleasantly surprised at the lopsided scoreline in the Wallabies’ favour.
An intercept try later, and it should have been put down your glasses with 10 minutes to go.
But those 10 minutes turned into an eternity.
With the world-champion Springboks on the rack, the game suddenly stopped. Confusion arose over whether South Africa could replace a player after a head injury assessment. Officials could not decide. It became the first of several on-field conferences as the teams stood waiting.
For the hard-pressed Boks, it was a blessing because it was what’s known as a “momentum killer”.
When the game finally resumed, they were reborn.
Then came the next drama. The referee’s comms didn’t work, so, tortuously, a mobile phone had to be brought out so he could confer with the video ref on decision after decision.
Then the yellow cards started happening – four in total – one after Australia scored what should have been a winning intercept try to leave the Wallabies with 11 men and close to defeat after South Africa scored three rapid-fire tries.
Justice was served, though, as the Wallabies hung on.
It was a momentous victory, but one tarnished by farcical officiating, indiscriminate yellow cards and the contemptuous treatment of paying fans.
If rugby is the game they play in heaven, then this was a match that nearly ended up in the other place.
Let’s call it purgatory, because rugby needs to take some lessons from this game and apply them fast in a competitive sporting market where it is constantly outplayed by NRL and AFL. These codes rely on fast-moving affairs with as few interruptions as possible.
NRL, in particular, has modified its rules in recent years to promote pace and attractiveness, creating a made-for-TV experience that has produced exhilarating encounters like Newcastle-Penrith, which has now set up a grand final infused with Homeric drama.
It is generally agreed that the best showpieces are the ones where the referee is virtually invisible, and the result is left to the players.
On Sunday night the referee, the officials and a mobile phone became the centre of attention and nearly cost the Wallabies a famous victory.
The paying public don’t front up to watch the officials.
The referee should not have allowed the South Africa replacement issue to go on so long, and if the comms break down, just referee the game without it. That seems to have worked for most of rugby’s history.
If all four of the yellow card offences committed – and at least one remains a mystery to me – deserved a sin bin, then just finishing a rugby game may be an achievement.
Rugby, we are constantly reminded, does not have rules but laws, and too many big games become lawyers’ picnics as technicalities throttle the spirit of the game.
What amazes me is how little criticism the game generated.
One commentator rightly called it a circus; others, chaotic, but most observers, including the players, were tight-lipped. Most ire was directed at the failed comms.
Yet that was just one facet of a situation that undermined rugby’s credibility. The acquiescence seems part of a culture that fails to understand how sclerotic the game’s structures are, and ignores them at its peril.
The rejuvenated Wallabies’ slender win will guarantee a big crowd for the coming Bledisloe Cup match against the All Blacks and rekindle interest in next year’s World Cup.
But it could have easily been yet another infamous loss. Ten minutes of madness that had sports fans – except the most one-eyed South African – shaking their heads.
