In an ideal world people should be able to take responsibility for their actions, but in the artificial world that exists within the chalk lines of a rugby field that does not appear to be the case.
It is apparently more important these days to trash the referee than it is to admit personal wrongdoing.
Yet referees do not tackle high and late, ignore the offside line or commit deliberate fouls, and to the best of my knowledge no referee has ever punched a player, although plenty of players (and a few spectators) have punched a referee.
Andre Watson, South Africa’s top referee, made the point this week that criticising the referee is the easy way out. Dan Retief, the country’s most respected rugby writer, suggested that the only way forward was to blow every game to the letter of the law. Only then, he said, would players understand the consequences of their actions.
It is only fair at this stage to say mea culpa. Like most South Africans, I was incensed by the way Australian referee Stuart Dickinson handled the Tri-Nations test between New Zealand and South Africa in Wellington this year. I deliberately fed the fires of indignation by criticising Dickinson in writing and it could be argued that Pieter van Zyl’s disgraceful actions in Durban were made possible by the media’s vendetta against poor refereeing.
But it is time to say enough is enough. In the aftermath of last week’s ill-tempered match between the Bulls and the Sharks at Loftus, Watson has come under heavy fire for his performance. And yet video analysis shows that he got virtually every decision right without the benefit of slow-motion replays.
But the South African Rugby Football Union’s (Sarfu) match commissioner, with the full range of video evidence at his fingertips, could not bring himself to cite Johan Wasserman for a dangerous tackle on Deon Kayser. That incident, together with a few other unsavoury ones from the match, has been swept under the carpet.
Ordinarily we would cry conspiracy. We would assume that Heyneke Meyer and Kevin Putt, the coaches of the two unions, had met after the game and said words to the effect of, ”I won’t cite your lad if you don’t cite mine”. And Putt admitted that they did indeed meet and that they discussed Wasserman’s tackle, but other than a request that the Bulls player apologise in person to Kayser, it appears that no deals were struck.
Consequently Wasserman will be able to take the field at Outeniqua Park for the Bulls this Saturday, to play against the union he represented in 1999 and 2000. That will be an immense comfort to the Bulls, for Wasserman, who it should be stated has no record as a serial offender, has been one of their best players this season.
Indeed, the entire Bulls back row might be said to be making a sentimental journey to George, for eighth-man Anton Leonard played five seasons for South Western Districts, including 1999 when they reached the semifinals of the Currie Cup, while Pedrie Wannenburg was born in Riversdale, 120km down the coast from George and played for SWD at the 1999 Craven Week.
In those days half the SWD Eagles team was made up of players from Pretoria’s Carlton Cup clubs who could not find favour with the management set up at the Bulls. Heyneke Meyer coached the Eagles in 1999 and when he moved to the Bulls in 2000 he took many of his players with him.
Subsequently, tough times have descended on the Eagles and they struggled painfully in the Vodacom Cup this year. But having won three matches in the Currie Cup, including their opener against the Lions, they stand on the threshold of qualification for the Super Eight section and it is not impossible that they may be playing A-section rugby next year and in 2004.
That would delight Sarfu, who are so desperate to have a fully representative team in the higher echelon next year that discussions around adding a ”development” team to the mix have apparently taken place. George has also been mooted as the venue for the South African leg of this year’s World Sevens Series, and it would be a huge boon to the union and the rugby- loving people of the area.
There are other significant games this weekend, but the best may well be at Outeniqua Park, and if you can’t make the trip to the Garden Route, watch it on television and listen out for the frisson of excitement when the stadium announcer informs the crowd that the referee for the game will be, yes you guessed it, Andre Watson.